By incorporating a simplified collisional-radiative model into a self-limited ablation model, the correlation between the emission rate of the Hα-line and the ablation rate of a hydrogen pellet in tokamak discharges is studied. In normal Ohmically heated discharges, the fuel deposition profile is reproduced accurately by the Hα-line emission profile, except for a slight delay of the maximum ablation rate with respect to the maximum emission rate.