Depletion of Natural Resources

What a resource is

• Anything that can be used to satisfy a need is a resource. Utility is what makes an object or substance a resource, and its use gives it a value.
• Resources are grouped into natural, human-made, and human resources. People are the most important resource, and technology is a human-made one.
• Renewable resources (solar and wind energy, water, soil, forests) renew or replenish quickly, but careless use can still cut their stock.
• Non-renewable resources (coal, petroleum, natural gas) have a limited stock that takes thousands of years to renew.
• Sustainable development means using resources carefully, so future generations also get their share.

Groundwater, and 100% mineral dependence

• Nationally, groundwater is improving. Safe assessment units rose from 62.6% in 2017 to 73.4% in 2024. Over-exploited units fell from 17.24% to 11.1% over the same period.
• Two states buck that trend. In Rajasthan, 70% of assessment units (214 of 302) are over-exploited. In Haryana, it is 61.5% (88 of 143).
• India is 100% import-dependent for lithium, cobalt, and nickel — the three minerals central to battery manufacturing.

A third front: forest depletion behind a headline gain

• The India State of Forest Report 2023 recorded a national gain of 1,445.81 sq km in total forest and tree cover since 2021.
• Most of that gain, 1,289 sq km, was tree cover — scattered trees and plantations outside recorded forest land, not forest cover. Forest cover itself grew by only 156 sq km.
• India has lost about 24,651 sq km of dense forest since 2003, even as headline totals grew. The northeast alone lost 327.30 sq km of forest and tree cover between 2021 and 2023.

Copper, graphite, and China’s grip

• India also imports over 90% of its copper and 60% of its natural graphite.
• China supplies over 80% of India’s lithium imports, and also dominates global processing of cobalt and nickel.

India’s response, and rising demand

• On 29 January 2025, the Union Cabinet approved the National Critical Minerals Mission, with an outlay of ₹34,300 crore, spread across 2024-25 to 2030-31.
• Demand for critical minerals is expected to more than double by 2030, as clean-energy and electronics manufacturing scale up.

Averages hide the gap, and it is not a reserves problem

• The groundwater story shows why national averages can mislead. The country-level trend is improving, but unevenly — some states recover while Rajasthan and Haryana deepen a crisis.
• Mineral depletion in India is not really about running out underground. It is about processing and refining capacity. Most of that capacity sits in China, not India.

Two different fixes

• Water and mineral depletion call for different responses. Groundwater needs local recharge and regulation.
• Mineral security needs geological exploration plus downstream processing investment. Recycling schemes are one attempt to close that gap.
• For India’s shift toward non-fossil energy, which will only raise mineral demand further, see EnvEco0008. For land degradation and restoration, see EnvEco0009.