-Livemint.com With food and water in short supply, farmers in Bundelkhand are leaving cattle to fend for themselves Mahoba (Uttar Pradesh)/New Delhi: Some time in March, Dhan Prasad Anuragi led his pregnant cow Kajal a couple of miles outside his village and abandoned her. The 55-year-old farmer, who lives in Balchaur village of Mahoba district in Uttar Pradesh, says he had no choice. He couldn’t afford to feed the cow and his only hope...
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Farm distress: Monsoon isn’t the only spoiler -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express Why the revival of exports matters as much as rains for Indian farmers. It is generally held that the woes of Indian farmers today have had largely to do with extreme weather events. The southwest Monsoon failed in both 2014 and 2015. Besides, we had extensive crop damage from unseasonal rain and hailstorms over large parts of north, west and central India in March 2015. From this also follows the...
More »Water level in dams dips to a new low -Jacob Koshy
-The Hindu Water storage in major Indian reservoirs has dipped to 19% of their total capacity, according to a weekly update by the Central Water Commission on Thursday. On the back of consecutive droughts in 2014 and 2015, several parts of India have faced searing droughts. This has contributed to water in these 91 dams steadily falling to touch decadal lows since April but a top official said water levels had not...
More »Why NREGA is critical in times of drought
-The Financial Express In a drought period, its job-insurance function critical Never perhaps in its decade of existence has the rural employment guarantee programme —MGNREGA—been more relevant than it is now. After two weak Monsoons, the critically low water levels in reservoirs have resulted in drought-like conditions in large parts of the country. Critics of the scheme would argue that even in its best days, the programme hasn’t accounted for more than...
More »The season of scorching ironies -Yogendra Yadav
-The Hindu It is the Supreme Court and not Parliament that has found time to pay attention to serious issues of drought relief and mitigation for hundreds of millions of Indians Irony. This one word captures our response to the ongoing nationwide drought in more ways than one. We have woken up to the reality of drought a full six months after the end of Monsoon. After waking up, we focus on...
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