India has an intricate nexus of groundwater irrigation, energy and climate. Subsidized electricity supply has led to unregulated groundwater pumping, causing a decrease in groundwater level and increase in carbon emissions. This complex nexus necessitates estimation of carbon emissions from groundwater irrigation. The study uses actual pumping data on 20.5 million groundwater structures from the Fifth Minor Irrigation Census (reference year 2013–14) to estimate carbon emissions. The estimates show that groundwater irrigation emits 45.3–62.3 MMT of carbon annually, contributing 8–11% of India’s total carbon emission. This analysis shows deep tubewells have a huge carbon footprint, and their growing number is a serious environmental concern. Spatial analysis reveals India’s western and peninsular region, which houses 85% of the country’s over-exploited groundwater blocks, contributes most to carbon emission. Moreover, this region hosts 27 districts which are groundwater–energy–climate nexus hotspots, together accounting for 34% of carbon emissions from groundwater irrigation. Comparison with the previous estimate reveals that carbon emission from groundwater irrigation nearly doubled between 2000 and 2013. Findings of this study are vital to the discourse on the increasing environmental costs of groundwater pumping in the country and will contribute to carbon emission mitigation strategies.

印度有着复杂的地下水灌溉，能源和气候关系。补贴的电力供应导致地下水泵不受监管，导致地下水位下降和碳排放量增加。这种复杂的联系需要估算地下水灌溉的碳排放量。这项研究使用了来自第五次小型灌溉普查（参考年2013-14）的2050万个地下水结构的实际抽水数据来估算碳排放量。估算表明，地下水灌溉每年排放45.3-62.3 MMT的碳，占印度碳排放总量的8-11％。该分析表明，深层管井具有巨大的碳足迹，并且其数量的增长是严重的环境问题。空间分析揭示了印度的西部和半岛地区，该地区拥有该国过度开采的地下水区块的85％，对碳排放贡献最大。此外，该地区拥有27个地区，这些地区是地下水，能源，气候之间的热点地区，合起来占地下水灌溉碳排放量的34％。与先前的估算结果相比较，表明2000年至2013年期间，地下水灌溉的碳排放量几乎翻了一番。这项研究的发现对于探讨该国地下水泵送的环境成本不断上升至关重要，并将有助于减少碳排放的战略。