A monumental waste

Thousands of crores of rupees spent on millions of water-related works have not readied Jharkhand for droughts

- RAJU SAJWAN, PRADEEP MISHRA

A FEW decades ago, my fields produced so much paddy and maize that I would donate it. This year, the situation is so bad that my entire family is surviving on the monthly ration the government provides under the National Food Security Act,” says Surendra Korba, who owns a 16-hectare (ha) farm in Sarhua village of Jharkhand’s Palamu district. "The village has over 200 families, but in recent years, about 75 per cent of the youth go to cities in search of work. Water shortage has made farming difficult," says Lokas Korba, a tribal rights activist in the village.

In the last decade, 2022 was one of the most drought-affected years for Jharkhand. According to "Yearly Weather Report-2022 (Jharkhand)" of the India Meteorological Department (imd), the state received 817.6 mm of rainfall, which is 20 per cent below normal. On October 31, 2022, the State Disaster Management Department declared 22 of the state's 24 districts, covering 122 blocks, as drought-affected. Some 3.15 million farmers have applied for relief under Chief Minister Drought Relief Scheme till February 2, 2023, says the scheme's web portal. Of these, 1.63 million farmers were not able to sow at all this year, while 998,714 farmers have lost more than one-third of their crop. The state has promised a onetime allowance of R3,500 per family to all eligible applicants.