In Maharashtra, India, drought and floodwaters arrive in the same place at the same time—a phenomenon local farmers call “wet drought.” This project unpacks why that happens and what it reveals about how India governs its groundwater. The problem is a clash of knowledge systems. State agencies rely on technical and scientific data to manage water, while farming communities draw on everyday experience of local hydrology. These ways of knowing rarely meet, so policies can miss what is actually happening underground. The researcher found that surface water and groundwater interact in ways that current governance ignores, leaving communities vulnerable to both scarcity and excess. If this work succeeds, it could reshape how state and non-state agencies design participatory groundwater programmes. A planned state-level workshop in Maharashtra will bring officials, civil society groups, and farmers together to reimagine landscapes under climate-driven rainfall variability. A Marathi-language book will make findings accessible to the people most affected. The district studied is a bellwether for emerging groundwater challenges globally, so lessons from Maharashtra could inform adaptation policies elsewhere.
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I am an environmental human geographer researching groundwater governance in India to identify pathways for just transformations in the era of climate change. This project examines a fundamental tension in Maharashtra, where drought and excess water appear side by side. What seems surprising, however, reflects critical issues regarding how surface and groundwater are known and how the politics of local, technical and scientific knowledge affect policy decisions. In my PhD, I explored the politics and processes of groundwater knowledge production, application, and circulation in Maharashtra, India. I encountered the idea of ‘wet droughts’ as I engaged with groundwater dependent farming communities, groundwater officials, civil society agencies, practitioners, scientists and consultants to trace which knowledges and practices inform governance. What I found was that drought sat side-by-side with concerns over ‘excess’ water, and that the interaction of groundwater and surface water was key to understanding climate impacts. Building on this, the fellowship consolidates these findings and develops a new research agenda for rethinking the place of groundwater in adaptation to climate change. Through three publications in leading geographical and interdisciplinary journals, I will advance critical debates on human-groundwater relations and governance. All articles emerge from my PhD work and have been presented in various conferences, seminars and workshop wherein comments and discussions have enhanced them. At QMUL, I will deliver seminar in 'Nature and Society' research theme to initiate discussions with fellow researchers working at nexus of water and society. I will organise panels in leading academic conferences of geographical and interdisciplinary nature, convening scholarship at the fore of groundwater governance and the knowledge politics of subterranean and climate adaptation policies. Collectively, these activities will facilitate me to advance my career as an environmental human geographer, focusing particularly on being a research leader in the socio-politics of groundwater governance and climate change. Drawing on my own experiences as practitioner and subsequent PhD, I aim to engage and influence research and practice of groundwater governance. I place significant value on how everyday practices and programmes implemented by state and non-state agencies in India matter to issues of ethics and justice. I will extend the impacts of my research beyond academia by engaging in dissemination and dialogue with practitioners, civil society organisations, and state agencies. Building on my PhD, I will focus on three key activities of knowledge exchange to inform groundwater policy and practice. I will convene a state level workshop on groundwater governance focused on two key areas: (1) reimagining landscapes in the era of climate-induced rainfall variability, and; (2) identifying pathways for participatory groundwater governance programmes that recognise multiple ways of knowing groundwater. The district (administrative unit) wherein my PhD was focused is representative of the regional groundwater challenges and a bellwether for emerging challenges internationally. Through creative dissemination activities, this project will open avenues for how we discuss, understand and respond to groundwater challenges and how our efforts towards just transformations can be embedded in concerns of justice and equity. I regularly maintain a blog that contains posts emerging from fieldwork experiences, data analysis, and sharing some of the preliminary outcomes emerging from the thesis. These were primarily undertaken in Marathi, the local language. I plan to further develop these posts to tie them together as a Marathi language book proposal on groundwater in Maharashtra.
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