Water Risk Assessment in the Hindon Catchment, India: Challenges and Opportunities for Resilience Building

India's rapidly expanding population and industrial base have resulted in escalating water demand, increasingly outpacing available supply and degrading water quality. The Hindon River, a tributary of the Yamuna, exemplifies these challenges across 6,232 km2 catchment, encompassing diverse land-use zones from agricultural plains to urban centres like Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar. This study applies a water balance methodology using open -sources datasets, QGIS, and python -based analytics to assess hydrological trends, groundwater dynamics, evapotranspiration, and land-use impacts in the Hindon catchment. Results reveal a critical water deficit of -342.8 mm/year, driven by overextraction of groundwater, water intensive crops, and high evapotranspiration losses. The paper outlines sectoral vulnerabilities across agriculture, industry, and domestic supply, and proposes a multi-pronged strategy encompassing crop diversification, real-time monitoring, urban water body restoration, and nature – based solutions for building long-term water resilience.