Farmers blame drastic fall in groundwater table on bottling plant, saying it draws out far more water than can be naturally recharged

Till the late 1990s, Bansi Aheer, like all other farmers around Kaladera, used to irrigate his seven-bigha farm, drawing water from a well. “Water was easily available at about 40 feet. But it dropped annually by one or two feet and later by eight or ten feet,” he says.