Securing Flows in the River Systems through Irrigation Water Use Efficiency—A Case Study from Karula River in the Ganga River System

“Tickner et al., 2020 [10] pointed out that case studies of environmental flows implementation, successful or otherwise, provide valuable insights into barriers and enabling factors, and illustrate the evolution and propagation of the practice of environmental flows globally.”

“On the other hand, a study by Ward and Velazquez 2008 [22] from Rio Grande basin, found out that water conservation subsidies are unlikely to reduce water depletions by agriculture.”

“…with Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) [1] which calls for “ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” Grill et al. 2015 [2] concluded that, globally, 48% of river volume is moderately to severely impacted by either flow regulation, fragmentation, or…”

“The most referred definition of e-flows by Arthington et al., 2018 [3] is “the quantity, timing, and quality of freshwater flows and levels necessary to sustain aquatic ecosystems which, in turn, support human cultures, economies, sustainable livelihoods, and well-being”.”

“Currently, 41% of global irrigation water use occurs at the expense of e-flows requirements and India contributes to about 17.7% of global annual e-flows deficit (both in terms of the total annual deficit and the number of months with transgressions) Jägermeyr et al. 2017 [6].”

“2018 [21] reviewed the advancements made towards improving irrigation water use efficiency (WUE), with a focus on irrigation in Australia but with some examples from other countries.”

“, 2011 [17], as part of the work in three African countries, shows little evidence of recall bias impacting agriculture data quality at farm-level.”

“The progress of this ambitious and complex programme has been reviewed by many researchers (including—Grafton and Wheeler 2018 [26], Williams et al.”

“Qureshi et al., 2010 [20] reviewed two key incentive policies to acquire water for e-flows for a part of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) in Australia.”

“Identifying environmental flows is likely to provide a strong scientific and open process within river management and for water allocation decisions at a basin scale, Overton et al., 2014 [5].”

“This aspect is in alignment with the suggestions made in previous studies and research (Wollburg et al., 2021 [18], Beegle et al., 2011 [17], Barton and Taron 2010 [16]).”

“Kaushal et al., 2019 [11] documented approaches to understand and resolve potential trade-offs between environmental flows objectives for the Ganga River in Uttar Pradesh and agricultural water demand.”

“This aspect is in alignment with the suggestions made in previous studies and research (Wollburg et al., 2021 [18], Beegle et al., 2011 [17], Barton and Taron 2010 [16]).”

“Irrigation accounts for nearly 78% of total withdrawals, while growing domestic and industrial demands intensify pressure on limited supplies (Kaushal et al. 2022).”

“In India, 70–80% of water is withdrawn for irrigation during lean season flows (Kaushal et al. 2022 ), and 70% of fresh - water systems are contaminated with heavy metals (Niti Ayog, 2019).”

“It is symptomatic that two papers dealt with watershed sediments, linking watershed restoration with controlling erosion and silting (Karami et al.; Kaushal et al., 2022), a major issue in watershed restoration.”