Presently, more than 100 borewell digging companies are functioning in the state.“The prevailing rules allow the companies to utilise ground water to the maximum without submitting any details regarding this to the government. The government does not have any data regarding the ground water table,” said Babu.

The association also urged the government to impose royalty for tapping ground water for industrial purposes as it was a natural resource.

The mineral water-bottling companies are making huge profit by exploiting ground water. Scientists had demanded that royalty should be charged from these companies as is done in the case of granite quarries, he said.

The association expressed concern over the depletion of the water table in many parts of the state owing to excessive mining of sand from rivers. The present method adopted for sand mining need to be modified and the sand budgeting should be done according to proper scientific studies, he added.