Chandigarh, Aug 23 - While warnings by farmers and experts over the years that Punjab's groundwater level is falling dangerously low has been strengthened recently by satellite imagery, authorities seem slow to measure up to the agricultural challenge .

Based on satellite imagery, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists have recently warned of a 'collapse of agricultural output and severe shortage of potable water' in India's bread basket. They have echoed concerns expressed by agricultural experts that the future of foodgrain production in Punjab is at stake.

Much of the groundwater depletion in Punjab, the green revolution state which contributes a substantial part of India's foodgrains, is attributed to sowing of water-gulping paddy varieties.

But the Punjab government is hardly keeping pace with the deterioration of groundwater levels.

'We are trying to identify blocks where water level is going down. We have a Rs.10-crore (Rs.100-million) project for water re-charging. The late sowing of paddy this year will also improve groundwater level,' Punjab's Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon told IANS.

'If rains fail again, I feel that a ban on paddy sowing should be there,' Sekhon added, without saying what, if anything, was being done at the ground level to check further depletion of groundwater level.

NASA scientists -- led by hydrologist Matt Rodell, who have been hunting the disappearing groundwater in northern India, particularly in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, using twin satellites of GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Change Experiment) -- have warned that 'beneath northern India's irrigated fields of wheat, rice and barley.... The groundwater has been disappearing.

They pointed out that groundwater levels were falling everywhere despite no unusual trends in rainfall over the region. They have pointed out that in recent years, rainfall over the region has been slightly above average, this year's shortfall notwithstanding.