Ministry of Jal Shakti Launches Punah Bharan App for Sustainable Groundwater Management

The Ministry of Jal Shakti of India introduced the mobile application Punah Bharan on 28th of October 2026, which is useful for scientifically planning artificial groundwater recharge. The BISAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics) and NWM (National Water Mission) together developed this application, which is able to find suitable zones for artificial groundwater recharge by utilizing geospatial information in a radius of up to 3 km. In addition, the web portal of this application offers GIS maps for the villages.

What Is the Punah Bharan Mobile Application?

Punah Bharan is a geospatial technology-based platform that is built with the aim of identifying sites for artificial groundwater recharge. This platform integrates location-based analysis with the hydro-geographic conditions of the location.

The application allows users to find out possible recharge zones and the suitable structures of the recharge in a selected location. The web portal of this application contains further tools for planning purposes, such as village-level Artificial Recharge Structure (ARS) zonation maps and GIS.

Punah Bharan App Features

This application offers wide features such as,

Recharge-zone Identification
Village-Level Mapping
GIS-based Analysis
Local Suitability Assessment
Scientific Planning

Geospatial Data Employed by the Platform

The Punah Bharan platform uses various geospatial datasets to determine the suitability of sites for artificial groundwater recharge.

Data set	Relevance to recharge analysis
Rainfall	Used to identify rainfall trends in a particular region.
Groundwater levels	Gives information regarding the status of groundwater in the region.
Groundwater yield	Utility in analysing groundwater-related features of a site.
Slope	Used in analysing the topographical features of a site.
Drainage	Used in analyzing surface water flows.

The combination of such datasets gives a better perspective on regional conditions than a single parameter alone.

Organizations Associated with the Punah Bharan Initiative

BISAG-N: The Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) created the app.
National Water Mission (NWM): The National Water Mission worked with BISAG-N to develop the app. This mission functions within the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
Ministry of Jal Shakti: The Ministry of Jal Shakti is a union government ministry that works on various aspects related to water policy and management, such as water resources and drinking water and sanitation.