Marred by rain deficiency, Karnataka is seeing a drought year. The State government has identified 62 taluks to be declared as drought-hit, going by the parameters of the Centre. 

The State has primarily seen floods during the rainy season over the past four years. In contrast, this year’s absence of rainfall has left it facing a severe drought that threatens to destroy the kharif crop. 

It has received only 526 mm of the State’s averagel 711 mm of rainfall from June 1 to September 4, according to State Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda.

Dry August

He pointed out that although June recorded a 56 per cent deficit in rainfall, July witnessed a brief improvement. But August again saw a significant 73 per cent rain deficit, which contributed to a 26 per cent monsoon deficit overall in the southern State.

Gowda also said that ₹529 crore has been given to the district offices to help with the drought issue. The government intends to disburse funding through the State Disaster Response Fund to supply water via tankers. 

As the government faces backlash on the delay in relief provision, BJP Spokesperson Prakash S said, “Already a lot of time has been lost, the government should have started the relief work immediately, however, the identification is a first good step, and now the relief work has to start immediately. If the monsoon continues to let us down, more taluks will need to be added to the set in the following days.” 

Underscoring that the State cannot depend on the Centre’s fund disbursement, he noted that in order to provide assistance, the Centre must first send a team to the State to examine the damage. Only then can the final sum be determined; in the meantime, funds must be taken from the continuing budget, irrespective of the cost pressures present. 

KP Suresh, a calamities expert said, “Unlike in the past, thewestern ghats has not received any major rainfall, thus leaving the reservoirs empty. This has contributed to the drought significantly.” The government was previously toying with the idea of declaring 180 taluks as drought-hit but has it has been able to declare only 62 taluks. The government will wait till the end of September to identify more areas, he said. 

In terms of relief work, some of the pre-existing crop insurance schemes will be made use of, allowing the government to wriggle out easily as it wouldn’t want to burden itself. The full fledged relief work can be expected to happen only be end of September, he added. 

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