Droughts: India
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Efforts by the Kodagu zilla panchayat to bring water from the Kanike, a tributary of the Cauvery , has not yielded results due to “improper supervision“. | Efforts by the Kodagu zilla panchayat to bring water from the Kanike, a tributary of the Cauvery , has not yielded results due to “improper supervision“. | ||
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=See also= | =See also= | ||
[[Drought of 2016: India]] | [[Drought of 2016: India]] | ||
Revision as of 15:40, 28 November 2016
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Droughts in India
Drought-proofing in India: 1960s-90s
Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar
Drought not a big calamity in India anymore
The monsoon has failed badly this year as it did in 1965.But its little more than an inconvenience this year,whereas in 1965 it was a monstrous calamity.The drought-proofing of India is a success story,but one widely misunderstood. India in the 1960s was pathetically dependent on US food aid.Even in the bumper monsoon year of 1964-65,food aid totalled 7 million tonnes,over one-tenth of domestic production.Then India was hit by twin droughts in 1965 and 1966.Grain production crashed by one-fifth.Only unprecedented food aid saved India from mass starvation.Jawaharlal Nehru talked big about self-sufficiency.Yet he led India into deep dependence on foreign charity.The 1966 drought drove India into a ship-to-mouth existence.Hungry mouths could be filled only by food aid,which reached a record 10 million tonnes. Foreign experts opined that India could never feed itself.William and Paul Paddock wrote a best-seller titled Famine 1975,arguing that the world was running out of food and would suffer global famine by 1975.They said aid-givers couldnt possibly meet the food needs of high-population countries like India.So,the limited food surpluses of the West should be conserved for countries capable of being saved.Countries incapable of being saved,like India,should be left to starve,for the greater good of humanity.
Indians were angered and horrified by the book,yet it was widely applauded in the West.Environmentalist Paul Ehrlich,author of The Population Bomb,praised the Paddock brothers sky-high for having the guts to highlight a Malthusian challenge. The US was never happy with Indias non-alignment.President Johnson made Indian politicians and officials beg repeatedly for more food.This prevented mass starvation,but left Indians writhing with humiliation. Then came the green revolution.This,it is widely but inaccurately believed,raised food availability and ended import dependence.Now,the green revolution certainly raised yields,enabling production to increase,even though acreage reached a plateau.But it did not improve foodgrain availability per person.This reached a peak of 480 grams per day per person in 1964-65,a level that was not reached again for decades.Indeed,it was just 430 gm per day per person last year.Per capita consumption of superior foodsmeat,eggs,vegetables,edible oilsincreased significantly over the years.But poor people could not afford superior foods. How then did the spectre of starvation vanish Largely because of better distribution.Employment schemes in rain-deficit areas injected purchasing power where it was most needed.The slow but steady expansion of the road network helped grain to flow to scarcity areas.The public distribution system expanded steadily.Hunger remained,but did not escalate into starvation.By the 1990s,hunger diminished too. Second,the spread of irrigation stemmed crop losses.The share of the irrigated area expanded from roughly one-third to 55% of total acreage.Earlier,most irrigation was through canals,which themselves suffered when droughts dried up reservoirs.But after the 1960s,tubewell irrigation rose exponentially,and now accounts for four-fifths of all irrigation.Tubewells are not affected by drought. More important,tubewells facilitated rabi production in areas with little winter rain.Once,the rabi crop was just one-third the size of the kharif crop.
Today both are equal.This explains why in 2009,which witnessed one of the worst monsoon failures for a century,agricultural production actually rose 1%: good rabi production offset the slump in kharif production. However,arguably the biggest form of drought proofing lies outside agriculture.Rapid GDP growth has dramatically raised the share of industry and services.Agriculture accounted for 52% of GDP in 1950,and for 29.5% even in 1990.This is now down to just 14%.Even if one-twentieth of this is lost to drought,it will be less than 1% of GDP. Back in the 1960s,India couldnt afford to import food,and depended on charity.But today GDP is almost $2 trillion,exports of goods and services exceed $300 billion and forex reserves are $280 billion.Even if we had to import 10 million tonnes of wheat at todays high prices,the cost,$3 billion,would be easily affordable.In fact,no imports are needed: government food stocks exceed 80 million tonnes. This is the real reason that droughts have ceased to be calamities.Foodgrain availability remains as low as in the 1960s,despite the green revolution.But rapid GDP growth,by hugely boosting the share of services and industry in GDP,has made agriculture a relative pygmy,greatly reducing the economys monsoon dependence.There remains a catch: a drought may no longer mean mass starvation,but still means food inflation.
Impact of drought on economy
The Times of India, May 11, 2016
Drought in 10 states is estimated to impact the economy by at least Rs 6,50,000 crore as about 33 crore people across 256 districts are facing the grave situation, a study has revealed.
Due to two consecutive years of poor monsoon, 2014-15 and 2015-16, water shortage in reservoirs as well as lowering of ground water table has created a serious challenge for the drought-affected areas in 10 states like Maharashtra and Karnataka, the study by Assocham said.
"The rough estimate indicates that this drought will cost national economy at least Rs 6,50,000 crore or say $100 billion," it said. The impact of drought is likely to remain for at least six months more because one needs resources and time to revive the activities on ground even if monsoon is predicted to be normal this year, it said.
"Let us assume, the government will spend just Rs 3,000 per person to cover water, food, health for these people for one or two month. With the population of 33 crore at risk, the estimated cost to economy will be about Rs 1,00,000 crore per month," the study said.
The loss of subsidies on power, fertiliser and other inputs multiply the impact, it added. On economic impact of drought, the study said the financial resources get diverted from development to aid and the possible migration to other places puts pressure on urban infrastructure and supplies.
There is likely an impact on children and women health besides farm debt increase due to loss in livestock and farm economy in the drought-hit districts, it said. The drought would create inflationary pressures making the food management an imperative challenge for the government and the policy makers, he added.
Central aid for drought stricken states
2012-16
The Times of India, Apr 19 2016
It's a drought when it comes to funds too
Subodh Varma
Relief and compensation for farmers and labou rers in 10 drought stricken states has become embroiled in an unseemly game of pass-the-buck as cashstrapped states are demanding funds to the tune of nearly Rs 42,000 crore from the Centre which has -so far -coughed up just about a third of that, nearly Rs13,000 crore. This appears to be stan dard practice: in the previous year, 2014-15, which was also a drought year, five affected states had demanded nearly Rs 18,000 crore while the Centre had doled out Rs 3,350 crore.
Long-term trends show that relief and compensation after natural calamities, which is primarily the responsibility of states, has been eating up an increasing share of state government budgets.For all states put together, such spending has increased by over three times in the past 15 years, with some states prone to droughts and floods having to spend even more. In 2001-02, the states spent Rs 5,012 crore on providing relief to people from natural calamities, but this had zoomed up to Rs 20,220 crore in 2014-15.
The Centre's share, which is in addition to this, comes from the National Disaster Relief Fund, which was mandated by the 13th finance commission to have Rs 33,581 crore for 2010-2015.Subsequently , the 14th finance commission increased this to Rs 61,219 crore for 2015-20.The Centre also contributes to state disaster relief funds.
Since less than a quarter of the cropped area in India is covered under any kind of insurance and also because the sum insured is a frac tion of the cost of produce, any weather calamity like drought or hailstorms can spell ruin for farmers.
For the financial year 2015-16, states had budgeted only Rs 13,240 crore for relief from natural calamities.
This is likely to be ex ceeded by a conside rable amount in view of the drought that is spread across 251 dis tricts of the country .
With winter rains fai ling in many parts, the drought has further intensified. The Karnataka government has already declared 12 districts as drought-affected for the rabi (winter) season which were part of the 27 drought districts for the preceding kharif (summer) season.
So, why is there such a big discrepancy between the states' demands and the Centre's approvals? Central go vernment officials say an inter-ministerial team visits the drought-affected area in each state and makes an assessment which is the basis of approval for relief funds.
State government officials unhappy with the huge difference say that their assessments are more rooted in reality and the Centre always has a tendency to undercut their claims.
The Modi government had lowered the minimum damage limit from 50% to 33% for farmers to become eligible for compensation and it has also increased the rate of compensation from Rs 9,000 to Rs 13,500 per hectare with a cap of two hectares.
But reports from most states say that even the increased amounts are not sufficient owing to the much sharper increase in costs of fertilisers, seeds, pesticides and other inputs.
2016
Water trains
To Bundelkhand
The Times of India, May 06 2016
Water train carries politics to parched Bundelkhand Slamming the brakes on a water train sent by the Centre for the parched Bundelkhand, the UP government on Thursday said the crisis was “not as serious“ as in Maharashtra's Latur.BJP accused the Samajwadi Party government of “gross insensitivity“ and asked it to make use of the train to ferry water to the parched region.
The state government, however, requested the Centre to provide it 10,000 tankers for distributing water in the region. “UPCM @yadavakhilesh requests GOI for 10,000 road tankers to distribute water in Bundelkhand from available water resources around the region (sic),“ the CM's office tweeted.
Bundelkhand is facing a crippling shortage of water and with an eye on the 2017 assembly polls, political parties are trying to take credit for resolving the crisis.
SP, which is in office, has accused local BJP members of asking the Centre for a water train to snatch credit from the Akhilesh Yadav government, which has distributed relief packets in the region.
A train with 10 empty wag ons has reached Jhansi. “The wagons are ready to be filled with water from a reservoir for dispatch to the destination as and when needed,“ commercial officer, Jhansi railway division, Girish Kanchan said.
Reacting to UP government's refusal to accept the water train, railway minister Suresh Prabhu said the Centre doesn't want to do any politics on the issue and all possible help would be provided to the state government.
BJP accused the SP government of “gross insensitivity“ after the alleged starvation death of a Dalit in Bundelkhand. It asked the SP govern ment to focus on providing relief to drought-hit farmers instead of spending money on publicity . “The Centre has helped the drought-hit people by sending a water train and the state should capitalise on it rather than making it a political issue,“ BJP spokesperson Shrikant Sharma said.
Marathwada
The Times of India, May 3, 2016
Priyanka Kakodkar
Only 2% of water left in Marathwada dams
There is only 2% of water left in dams in drought-struck Marathwada, with a month and a half to go before the monsoon sets in.
Eight of the region's 11 major dams are at dead storage level. Water from the dams has to be li from the dams has to be lifted as it cannot flow out. The Manjara and Lower Terna dams have run totally dry . In 2015, at this time, the water level in those dams was higher at 10%. This is the fourth year of drought in Marathwada in the last five years. The state government says there is enough water to last the region till monsoon. “We are hopeful the monsoon will come earlier,“ said state water resources mini ster Girish Mahajan.
Rainfall across the state has been deficient since 2014.Dams across the state have only 16% water left, compared to 27% at this time in 2015.Dam water levels in north and western Maharashtra have halved compared to last year. Water levels in western Maharashtra's dams have dropped from 32% to 16% at this time in 2015.
Activist Kishor Tiwari, who is heading a task force for farmers, said the government should enforce a cutback in cultivation of waterguzzling sugarcane in favour of more sustainable crops.
Wells dry up first time in 100 years
The Times of India, Apr 24 2016
Syed Rizwanullah
Wells dry up first time in 100 years
Marathwada has seen terrible droughts before. But never before did the two oldest wells in Wadval Nagnath village in Chakur taluka of Latur dry up. These wells have been around over 100 years. About eighty other wells -both old and new -situated in and around the Wadval-Nagnath too have almost dried up. Few borewells are functioning. “The owners have decided not to use the water for their crops but have opened the wells to the public, says sarpanch Shilpatai Rajkumar Bendke.
The water in the well owned by Annasaheb and Ambadas Patil has turned so muddy that it can't be used for drinking. Raosaheb Bhanje's well is dilapidated but the water is potable. “But it's risky. Sometimes people slip and fall in. But, we manage to rescue them, says Bendke. The village gets two tankers a day to service its population of about 10,000. “We store the water and then it pump it into the overhead tank. It is supplied to the village for a few minutes. But it isn't enough, she says.
Karnataka
Talakaveri
The Times of India, Apr 24 2016
Wells run dry in Cauvery's birthplace
Madikeri
The irony can't be harsher. Talakaveri, the birthplace of the Cauvery river, has no drinking water left.
The open well in the village has dried up, causing hardship to pilgrims and residents alike. If the situation continues, residents say , priests at the temple will be forced to fetch water from the holy pond something done only during Teerthodbhava, an annual occurrence in which the goddess Cauvery is believed to emerge from a tiny pond in the form of a holy spring.
Kodagu district, known for its cool weather, has this year recorded a high of 30 degrees.
Efforts by the Kodagu zilla panchayat to bring water from the Kanike, a tributary of the Cauvery , has not yielded results due to “improper supervision“.
