-Down to Earth While other states had declared drought months ago, Gujarat govt kept calling it a “scarcity of water” While other states like Karnataka, Maharshtra, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh had declared drought at the very offset of the Southwest Monsoon, and began work on mitigation measures, the Gujarat government remained silent despite receiving deficit rainfall in most of the districts. Until yesterday, the Gujarat government had been terming the situation...

-The Indian Express For governments both at the Centre and in the concerned states, the most sensible option is to act fast. After two years of relatively good rains, large parts of Maharashtra (especially the Marathwada region and the adjoining districts of Jalgaon, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Sholapur, Amravati and Yavatmal), North Gujarat, Saurashtra, Kutch and North Karnataka are reeling under drought. What is different this time is that it has been induced...

-Newsclick.in Of the 136 talukas in Maharashtra, which had demanded that they should be declared ‘drought-hit’, only three were “eligible” to be there in the category, as per 2016 manual. Though the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had declared a month ago that as many as 255 districts of the country have witnessed deficit rainfall of 20 to 59 per cent during the South-West monsoon, many of the states are yet to declare...

-Newsclick.in 11,487 villages in 167 tehsils will face water scarcity, farmers likely to be most severely hit. After running in circles over “drought like situation” in Maharashtra, according to the latest study conducted by the state’s Groundwater Survey and Development Agency (GSDA), nearly 71 per cent of the state shows a drop of more than a meter in groundwater level in September, as compared to a five-year average. As many as 170 tehsils...

-Down to Earth While last year, the state’s 14,679 villages were hit by drought, this time 20,000 villages are already facing drought-like conditions The Maharashtra government has identified 201 talukas in 32 districts that are facing water scarcity owing to deficient rainfall in the Southwest Monsoon season. As per a preliminary list of drought-affected areas, which is available with the Down To Earth, maximum drought-affected talukas are in Jalgaon district (13) followed by...