Illegal Borewells and Groundwater Extraction: How to Complain

Drawing groundwater for commercial, industrial, construction or bulk supply purposes without a no objection certificate (NOC) is illegal in most of India. The NOC comes from the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) or, in states with their own law, the state groundwater authority. Individual households and farmers are generally exempt. If a factory, builder, hotel, car wash, packaged water plant or tanker operator is pumping without a NOC, you can complain to the CGWA or state authority and the District Magistrate, who can have the borewell sealed. If they do nothing, the NGT can order sealing, environmental compensation and recharge.

This page is for people who see groundwater being taken illegally and want it stopped: residents of a colony whose handpumps have dried up, villagers next to a bottling plant, RWAs watching a builder pump basement water into the drain, and farmers whose wells fall every summer. It explains who needs permission, which office has the power to act, how to build a complaint that leads to sealing, and when the matter belongs before the National Green Tribunal.

We also act for businesses that have received a notice. If that is your position, see our guide on replying to a CGWA notice and our page on obtaining a groundwater NOC.

The essentials

How do I complain about an illegal borewell or groundwater extraction?

Write to two offices at once: the groundwater regulator and the District Magistrate. The regulator is the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) through its regional office, unless your state has its own groundwater law and authority, in which case that authority issues NOCs and handles complaints. The DM matters because sealing a borewell is a field action carried out by the district administration, usually through the SDM, tehsildar and police, often on the regulator's request or under powers given to district officers.

Your complaint should say exactly where the borewell is, who is running it, what the water is used for and why you believe there is no NOC. The most useful single fact is proof of commercial use: tankers filling up, water piped into a factory, a construction site's dewatering pump running into the drain, a packaged water unit. Attach dated photos and videos, and ask the authority to inspect, verify the NOC, seal the borewell if there is none and assess environmental compensation.

Keep proof of delivery. Then file an RTI asking whether the entity holds a NOC, its permitted quantity and conditions, and what action was taken on your complaint. If thirty to forty-five days pass without action, escalate to the regulator's head office and the divisional commissioner, and consider the NGT.

The law on groundwater extraction in plain words

Who needs a groundwater NOC and who usually does not

This is a general picture. The CGWA guidelines and state rules have details and exceptions, so check the current text for your category.

For the exemptions in more detail, see groundwater NOC exemptions.

Why your area's groundwater status changes the answer

Groundwater authorities assess blocks or assessment units as safe, semi-critical, critical or over-exploited, based on how much is drawn against how much is recharged. The category of your block affects whether a NOC can be given at all for some uses, how much water can be drawn, and how strict the recharge and monitoring conditions are. Environmental compensation for illegal extraction is also generally higher in stressed categories.

This matters in two ways for a complaint. If your area is critical or over-exploited, point that out at the top: it raises the seriousness and the likely compensation, and it makes the case for sealing stronger. And if a unit claims to have a NOC, the conditions attached to it, such as a permitted daily quantity and a flow meter, become the yardstick. A unit with a NOC for a modest volume that runs tankers all day is still violating it. Our guide on extraction in over-exploited areas explains the industrial rules.

The operator says it has a NOC. What should we check?

A NOC is not a licence to pump without limit. It names the permitted quantity, usually per day or per year, the number and location of borewells, and conditions. Common conditions include a tamper-proof flow meter on each borewell, monitoring wells (piezometers) to track the water level, recharge or rainwater harvesting structures, periodic reporting to the authority and, for larger users, telemetry. The NOC also has a validity period and must be renewed.

So when an operator waves a NOC at you, ask by RTI for the full NOC with its conditions and the last compliance reports filed. Then compare. Are there more borewells than the NOC lists? Is the meter installed and working? Do the tanker numbers suggest far more than the permitted quantity? Has the NOC expired? Any of these is a violation in itself, and complaints that point to a specific breached condition get a much faster response than complaints that simply say the extraction is illegal.

For a business, the same list is the compliance checklist. Units that keep meter readings, recharge records and reports in order rarely lose an inspection, even in stressed areas.

Which office to approach for which problem

Step-by-step plan to get an illegal borewell sealed

Most complaints fail because they are vague. This sequence builds a file the authorities find hard to ignore.

How we help at each stage

We act for residents and RWAs complaining about extraction, and for businesses responding to notices.

• Assessing the case. We check whether the user needs a NOC, which regulator covers the area, and whether the evidence is enough to justify a complaint or an NGT application.
• Drafting the complaint. We prepare a complaint to the regulator and the DM that cites the correct rules, lists the evidence and asks for specific action, along with RTI applications.
• Escalation. If action stalls, we write to senior officers with a clear record of what has and has not been done.
• NGT applications. We draft and file applications before the NGT, name the right respondents, and handle joint committee inspections and objections to reports.
• Execution. If orders are not complied with, we move for execution and contempt-type relief under Sections 25 and 26 of the NGT Act.
• For businesses. We reply to notices, apply for NOCs and challenge disproportionate compensation demands, while getting the unit compliant.

Documents and evidence that make a complaint work

The situations we see most often

In urban areas the commonest case is a construction site. Basements in high water table areas are dewatered for months, and the water goes straight into the stormwater drain. Dewatering needs permission, and many EC conditions for large projects also restrict groundwater use during construction. Residents notice because the drain runs clear water day and night in the dry season. In peri-urban areas it is tanker operators drawing from private borewells on farmland and selling water to colonies that the municipal supply does not reach; see water tanker mafia and illegal borewells.

In industrial belts it is units drawing far more than their NOC allows, or drawing without a NOC at all, and sometimes injecting untreated effluent back into borewells, which is a separate and serious Water Act violation for the State Board. In villages it is bottling plants or large dairies next to settlements whose handpumps dry up. And inside residential complexes it is the society or builder running borewells without permission; our guide on illegal borewells in housing societies covers that.

When to go to the NGT, and what it usually orders

The NGT is the right forum when the regulator and the district administration have had your written complaint and have not acted, or have acted in a way that changes nothing, such as sealing one borewell of five. It is also right where groundwater depletion is affecting a whole village or colony and a district-level solution is needed. The tribunal has heard many groundwater cases over the years and has pressed the CGWA to tighten its approach.

In a typical case the tribunal asks a joint committee, which may include the CGWA or state authority, the State Board and the DM, to inspect and report. Orders commonly include sealing of unauthorised borewells, environmental compensation, installation of meters, recharge works and periodic reporting. Parties can object to the committee's findings. If the orders are not obeyed, an execution application follows. Our hub on compensation for environmental damage and the guide on environmental compensation for illegal groundwater use explain how compensation is worked out.

When Advocate B.K. Singh prepares a groundwater application, the evidence he looks for first is a log of commercial use over time. A NOC can be argued about; a fortnight of tanker numbers is difficult to explain away.

If your business has received a groundwater notice

Notices usually allege extraction without a NOC, extraction beyond the permitted quantity, or breach of conditions such as missing meters. They often come with a proposed environmental compensation figure and sometimes a sealing order. Read the notice for the period it covers and the basis of the calculation, because both are often open to correction.

Reply within the time given. If you are eligible for a NOC, apply at once and say so in the reply; if you hold one, attach it with meter readings and compliance reports. Fix what can be fixed before the hearing. Where a sealing order has been passed without a hearing or on a wrong factual basis, there are remedies, but delay weakens them. Our pages on CGWA matters and the guide on replying to a CGWA notice set out the process.

Before you complain, check these

Mistakes complainants make, and when not to file

The first mistake is complaining about a neighbour's household borewell. Individual domestic use is generally exempt from the NOC requirement, and such complaints usually go nowhere unless a state law requires registration and it has not been done, or the borewell is actually feeding a commercial activity. The second is sending the complaint to the pollution board alone. The board handles contamination, not extraction; the groundwater regulator and the DM are the ones with sealing power.

The third is giving up after a sealing. Seals are broken, motors moved, and new borewells drilled a few metres away. Authorities rely on residents to tell them. The fourth is asking only for sealing and forgetting compensation and recharge, which are what repair the damage.

Do not file before the NGT on suspicion alone, without an RTI on NOC status and without a written complaint to the authorities. And if your real problem is that the municipal supply does not reach your colony, a groundwater complaint will not fix that; a representation to the water supply agency, and if needed a writ, is the better route. Advocate B.K. Singh's usual advice to colonies in that position is to pursue both, because illegal tankers and missing piped supply are two sides of the same problem.