THE DROUGHT

The southeastern swath

Following up on a survey of the northern and western States, a study of the ravages of drought and related phenomena in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

A FRONTLINE TEAM

THE acute economic crisis that has engulfed lives and livelihoods over large parts of rural India in the last two and a half months can only partly be attributed to a truant monsoon. True, in a country where agriculture is predominantly rain-fed, and where the distribution and timing of rainfall are as critical for agriculture as its overall quantum, the dry spell during late June and July spelt disaster for the kharif crop. The worst drought in 12 years, as official India describes it, has been borne by a rural economy and society rendered fragile and vulnerable by the removal of safety nets that in the past cushioned the impact of drought.

The policy decision, taken in 1997, to replace the universal public distribution system (PDS) by one that is 'targeted'at BPL (below poverty line) families, has severely eroded the capacity of poor families to withstand the impact of the drought. As 65 million tonnes of foodgrain lie unutilised in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), there is no evidence from the ground of a massive food-for-work programme, which could create employment and thereby purchasing power among the rural poor. The "universal themes" of drought, captured by a Frontline team in the States of northern and western India ("Drought challenges", Frontline, August 30) - migration and dispossession, the increasing burden of debt, sharpening inequalities, growing hunger and malnutrition - are shared by other regions of the country as well. Their impact has been felt more acutely because of the limited and ineffective reach of the recast PDS, the increases in the costs of cultivation owing to the lifting of subsidies on inputs, and the decline in the prices of agricultural products.

The arrival of the monsoon in August has made little immediate difference to the gravity of the drought situation in the countryside. But with the issue disappearing from the radar-screens of the media, independent media investigations on the drought have more or less ceased, and the pressure on governments to make public commitments or share information about the follow-up action on the numerous drought-relief 'packages' is off.

K. BHAGYA PRAKASH
At Arthi Kote near Hiriyur in Karnataka, women till the land, with hardly any moisture evident, to start sowing, expecting a late revival of the monsoon.

Karnataka is in the grip of drought for the second consecutive year, and the familiar story of rural distress compounded by official inaction unfurls. Although the monsoon has picked up since the first week of August, much damage has already been done to the kharif crop. Against the normal kharif coverage of 53.32 lakh hectares in the first week of August, the actual coverage this year is 36.16 lakh ha.

The State government announced the first of its drought-relief 'packages' a good two months after the monsoon failed. It announced the starting of a 100-day drought-relief programme from August 15 in 152 taluks that have been declared drought-affected. For Siddana Gowda, a 30-acre landlord in Bijakal village of Kushtagi taluk in Koppal district, who may have to leave his village in search of work for the first time in his life, this is a distant promise that will not materially change his life. There is a customary exodus every year to places as far as Pune, Kasaragod, Goa and Bangalore in search of work. Entire families leave their villages and return with the first pre-monsoon showers. This year, regular monsoon showers in June held out the promise of a good season, but the extensive dry spell in July saw the crops wither and the job market shrink. In Bijakal, around 250 people in a population of 2,250 people left the village this year after sowing took place. Sangamava Chaluvadi is an agricultural worker whose four unmarried children aged between 12 and 25 have gone to Pune for work. She has mortgaged two acres of land, and manages to make ends meet by doing labour at the going wage rate of Rs.12 a day for women. Of the 411 families living in the Scheduled Caste colony, only four have been given the 'yellow card' under the Antodaya scheme, which fetches them rice at Rs.3 a kg. Sangamava's is not one of the four families. "Last year the government provided some work,"she said. "But this year things are much worse. We want work."

The demand for work is heard in village after village of Bellary and Kushtagi taluks, and in neighbouring Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh. Last year, the spectre of drought was partially dispelled by copious late monsoon showers. This year the monsoon was delayed even more, and by the second week of August there was still a shortfall of 32 per cent of the normal rainfall in Karnataka. Early agricultural operations such as ploughing and sowing were disrupted and in areas like most of unirrigated Anantapur they had not begun at all. The sight of large machines such as excavators and bulldozers engaged in road construction is a new and striking feature in the countryside. "They no longer employ people for this work, which is all contracted out. There have been no drought-time employment schemes by the government this year," said Pampara Gowda, a small landowner from the village. "We don't have to go out if our labour can be used here, for building roads, or water tanks, or other public utilities."

K. BHAGYA PRAKASH
Part of a water-starved and consequently spoilt maize crop at Talavagere in Kushtagi taluk of Karnataka.

The new food rationing system has very limited coverage. In all the villages that Frontline visited in Bellary and Koppal districts of Karnataka, the survey of BPL households had still not been completed. In some villages, the old "green card" system, under which rice is available in the ration shops at Rs.7 a kg, is still in existence alongside the "yellow card" scheme where rice is available for Rs. 3. At Belagalu village in Bellary taluk, in the Scheduled Caste Colony of 125 households only seven yellow cards have been distributed. What is given for Rs.3 a kg is broken rice that is dirty and foul smelling. In Belagalu Thanda, a Scheduled Tribe hamlet of 800 households a kilometre and a half away from the main village, 104 yellow cards have been distributed. "We are all poor in this village, yet only a few have got yellow cards," said Sonali Bai, an agricultural labourer. "In our village, no one uses the green card anymore. We can get better and cheaper rice in the open market," she said.

The images of drought - seemingly endless vistas of dry, scorched fields, and cattle and goats grazing on field stubble - appear in district after district, whether in Tamil Nadu's rice bowl, Thanjavur, on the drive from Thanjavur to Orathanadu and on to Mannargudi, 30 km away; in Thuvakudi in Tiruchi district; Marugalkurichi near Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district; or in the 130-km stretch between Madurai and Tiruchi. The yearning for the verdant green that is the colour of the season in normal years finds frequent expression. Several kilometres past Thuvakudi, on the outskirts of Tiruchi town, Mohammed Hussein pointed to dry fields. "These are fertile areas that should have been awash with paddy,"he said. "I have never seen fields so parched as this." Tending their cattle in Marugalkurichi, near the temple town of Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district, S. Vanamamalai and N. Arumugam spoke of how the fallow lands should have been "a carpet of green paddy". It did not even receive "saral" (light showers) this year, they said. In fact, the areas has not had sufficient rain for the past four years.

This is the time of the year when farmers in Tamil Nadu, especially in the Cauvery delta districts, have harvested the short-term 'kuruvai' paddy crop on three to four lakh acres and are well into the preparatory work for the 'samba' paddy crop on over eight lakh acres. But such is not the case this year.

K. BHAGYA PRAKASH
Papaya trees felled in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, the crop having been found unsustainable owing to lack of water.

The sweep and the magnitude of the drought in the Cauvery delta districts are said to be the worst in 70 years. These districts include Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Pudukottai and Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, and Karaikaal in Pondicherry. Madurai, Dindigul, Theni, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Perambalur and Karur districts are equally affected.

Crops other than paddy have been affected too. Sugarcane has started drying in Perambalur district. Scores of banana groves in Tirunelveli district have wilted. Coconut groves in Karur district and around Koodankulam, Tirunelveli, looked seared with hundreds of trees bereft of their crowns. In Perambalur district 95 per cent of the total cultivable area is lying fallow. In the absence of rain it will not be possible to raise paddy and oilseed crops on two lakh hectares in the district. About 800 tanks and 3,400 ponds are dry.

The failure of the monsoon in the catchment areas of the Cauvery river in Karnataka is largely responsible for the drought in the Cauvery delta districts. Under the Interim Order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, Tamil Nadu should have received about 85 tmc ft of Cauvery water in June, July and up to August 20. It has received about 12 tmc ft this year. Karnataka also brushed aside Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee's request on July 26 that it release at least 3 tmc ft to Tamil Nadu for use as drinking water. "This has resulted in rich, water-bound areas of Tiruchi town including Srirangam, situated on the banks of the Cauvery, turning dry. There is a terrible water scarcity in Tiruchi town," said S. Ranganathan, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers' Welfare Association. The July and August showers, which are vital for the samba crop, have failed. In fact, most of Tamil Nadu's rivers including the Cauvery and its branch the Coleroon are bone dry. The large Vandiyur tank, on the outskirts of Madurai, is almost dry. Most of the lakes in Chengalpattu district have dried up. There is severe scarcity of drinking water in many towns including Tiruchi, Madurai, Karur, Thanjavur, Chidambaram, Salem, Erode, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli.

The plight of cattle is no less. Without water and fodder, the cattle are surviving on weeds, said V. Shanmugham and A. Shanmugham, landless labourers at Soorakottai village in Thanjavur district. The shortage of fodder is on account of the unseasonal rain in February, which caused floods in the deltaic belt. This damaged the paddy crop and wiped out the fodder crop. Distress sale of cattle to leather units has begun.

K. GANESAN
A seared plantain crop at Marugalkurichi in Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu.

The drought has rendered 12 lakh landless farm workers jobless. In addition, six lakh marginal farmers who also work as farm labourers, are unemployed today. This has affected the local economy. M. Dakshinamurthy, who runs a tea-stall at Somnampettai, said he usually made between Rs.700 and Rs.1,000 a day, but now he gets only Rs.200. Sales are sluggish. The rebates offered on textiles and consumer goods during the Tamil month of Aadi (which ended on August 16) failed to boost demand. Since there is minimal construction activity, farmhands are unable to find jobs as construction workers. M. Ibrahim, a fish seller in Soorakottai, was despondent. "People have no money. I go everywhere to sell fish but it remains unsold," Ibrahim said, pointing to the basket of fish on his cycle-carrier. Vegetable prices have shot up. Even at the "uzhavar sandhai" (markets run by the farmers themselves), the arrival of vegetables has dropped by 50 per cent.

Because of the kuruvai shortfall, mills which hull paddy for the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) are working at 50 per cent capacity or less. In and around Vallam, there are more than ten hulling mills, including six big units, each of which can hull 1,500 tonnes of paddy a month.

Between Mannargudi and Needamangalam in Thanjavur district, the dry terrain is interrupted by isolated patches of green where the crop has been raised with water pumped out of wells. Groundwater levels have also fallen, said Ganesan, a small farmer at Kakkarai village. He has been left with a blight-infected paddy crop despite using more fertilizer than usual. "Even the samba will be a write-off if it does not rain in the next few weeks," he said. If that happens, even pulses cannot be raised. And groundnut cultivation has become uneconomical because of the fall in oilseed prices.

The practice of "direct sowing" was introduced with considerable success during the 1987 drought, when paddy was sown on eight lakh acres (about 3.2 lakh ha). Madapuram village near Thiruthuraipoondi pioneered this method of raising paddy on small plots and there is some evidence of it this year around Thiruthuraipoondi taluk. In this method, transplantation is not done and the paddy comes up in about 45 days. "One of the hazards of the direct sowing method is that a lot of weeds grow," said Ranganathan. "But the farmers have perfected this technique over the years. Direct sowing ensures at least fodder for the cattle."

ASHOKE CHAKRAVARTY
Amid a damaged paddy crop at Chandka near Bhubaneswar.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced relief measures for Rs.164 crores. Although relief measures such as digging ponds, desilting canals, streams, ponds and lakes are under way, they are not creating jobs for landless labourers. A number of farm ponds have been dug with the help of machines in Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts. This has deprived landless labourers of jobs. In Tiruchi and Pudukottai districts, men and women, rather than excavators, have been deployed to execute relief works.

The government announced that it would provide a subsidy of Rs.1 lakh to any farmer to dig a pond over an area of an acre. This one-acre pond could then be used for breeding fish as well as irrigating ten more acres. At Kothankudi, near Komal village in Nagappatinam district, an excavator dug a pond of the size of one-third of an acre in three days. "Had landless labourers been used for the task, about 300 persons would have been provided jobs for three weeks. Thus the very purpose of the scheme has been defeated,"said a farmer. In the heart of Thiruthuraipoondi town, an excavator was engaged in desilting a tank owned by the municipality while people stood on the margins in groups. These persons could have been employed for the same purpose.

A press release issued by the Tamil Nadu Government on August 4 estimated crop losses to be around Rs.1,332 crores. The State government has sought Rs.720 crores as assistance from the National Calamity Contingency Fund in addition to the funds already provided to the State for 2002-2003 under the Calamity Relief Fund.

IN an interview to Frontline in the context of the current drought, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, the agricultural scientist-innovator and institution builder, drew attention to the importance of the "interspell duration" (the time-span between one spell of rainfall and another) to rain-fed agriculture (issue of August 30). The critical nature of timely rains is best exemplified by Orissa's experience. Although the rain has been more or less normal in August in Orissa, around 70 per cent of the paddy crop is estimated to have been damaged. The dry spell in July is believed to have been the worst in the last 40 years. By the third week of the month, rural Orissa was dry and withering. Parched, cracked land took the place of green paddy fields, and with rivers and canals drying up, all that a farmer could do was pray for rain.

"In June, the rainfall was all right and I was looking forward to a decent crop. But by the latter half of July I was heartbroken. All the crops I had were gone," said 65-year old Govind Sahu, a marginal farmer at Saradhapur village in Angul district. Angul recorded the lowest amount of rain among the districts in the State this year. Standing in one corner of his plot and staring blankly at the barren field, the gaunt and elderly man was a picture of defeat. According to his estimate, his financial loss would be around Rs.8,500, a big sum for a small farmer. "I have five mouths to feed in my family, but what can I do if the crops fail?," he said. His son works in a shop in Angul town, but his earnings are inadequate. Sahu has taken up a job as a stone-crusher at a wage of Rs.40 a day. "I don't know how long my old bones will withstand the strain. All my life I have been a farmer, I only know my land," he said.

According to Special Relief Commissioner R. Balakrishnan, the July rain makes or breaks agriculture in Orissa. "The amount of rain the State receives in July is more important than the quantum it receives in the entire monsoon season," he said. A shortfall of less than 13 per cent of rainfall in July can bring about a drought-like situation in the State, as was the case in 1997 when the State received 87.14 per cent of the normal rainfall in July. This year the rainfall in July was only 39.86 per cent of the normal amount. The State received only 149 mm of rainfall against the normal of 351 mm.

Total paddy losses in the State are estimated at Rs.1,800 crores. As of August 2, 18.67 lakh ha of paddy fields have been affected severely, and the total loss in production stands at 15.6 lakh tonnes. It took till August 10 for the State government, a coalition of the Biju Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party, to declare all 30 districts and 283 of the 314 blocks as drought affected. The impact of the drought has been the most severe in the districts of Angul, Bolangir, Deogarh, Sonepur, Sundergarh, Nuapara, Bargah, and Kalahandi. Angul was the worst affected in July, with the rainfall deviation being as low as -82.5 per cent. Against the normal rainfall of 382 mm in July, Angul received only 66.76 mm. In Deogarh the deviation was -81.87 per cent, and in Sundergarh -78.02 per cent.

With the rains failing until the first week of August, the only alternative left to save the crops from moisture stress was flow irrigation. But this too was affected by the lack of rain. Until the first week of August, almost all the major reservoirs had only two to five feet of water above the dead storage level. The State's largest irrigation project at Hirakud was not in a position to provide water through canals for irrigation. Of the 15,000 lift irrigation points in the State, around 9,000 were in working condition, while the rest needed to be repaired. However, only 500 lift irrigation points were handed out to the Pani panchayats. Crops failed completely even in the 31 irrigated blocks excluded from the drought-affected list.

With the water level in all the hydro-electric reservoirs reaching its lowest point, the State started facing an acute power crisis. Towards the last week of July, when the dry spell continued, the State government's concerns shifted to an imminent drinking water crisis. The Orissa Hydro Power Corporation warned that if the situation persisted, all hydel units would have to be shut down, as the priority would shift from power generation to supplying water for drinking and irrigation. However, with the August rain, the drinking water crisis has been averted.

It was, however, too late to save the crops. The monsoon had started well enough for agricultural workers and farmers in the State, with the State receiving slightly less than normal rainfall in June. By the end of July, however, many of them were desperately trying to sell their cattle after the lack of rain for over a month led to an acute fodder shortage. Seeing no way out, they desperately tried to obtain insurance under the National Crop Insurance Scheme in the hope of getting some compensation in the event of total crop failure.

It is not only farmers who have been badly hit. Thousands of fishermen in Paradip, Kujang and Ersama blocks of Jagatsinghpur district, and Mahakalpada and Marasaghai blocks of Kendrapara have been affected severely by the lack of rain in the upper banks of the Mahanadi. According to Fisheries Department officials, there is an acute scarcity of fish this year, affecting not only fishermen but also those providing them with ice, baskets, leaf plates and other accessories. Many of these people have been forced to work as labourers.

The State government instructed District Collectors to undertake labour intensive food-for-work programmes in drought-affected areas. In such programmes, priority has been given to the construction of water tanks and the renovation of old ones. The Panchayati Raj Department directed district officials to introduce labour-intensive work with the funds and foodgrains available under different schemes and also create additional wage employment by taking up projects that would assist drought-proofing. These include soil moisture conservation works, water-shed development, setting up of additional water resources, afforestation and creation of village infrastructure. The State government aims to generate 2.85 crore man-days during the period July 2002 to March 2003.

"To ensure that there are no starvation deaths or large-scale migration of farmers, we have disbursed Rs.1.4 crores at the panchayat level and Rs.20 crores at the Collector's level," Orissa's Revenue Minister Biswabhusan Harichandan told Frontline. "For immediate relief in cases of extreme distress, the sarpanch of a village is empowered to distribute 500 gm of rice per head," he said. Collectors, Sub-Collectors and Sarpanchs have also been told to set up free kitchens for periods ranging from one week to two months, depending on the gravity of the situation. Agriculture Production Commissioner Sanjeev Chandra Hota said the government was considering the possibility of introducing an earlier variety of rabi crop in view of the paddy crop failure. The State government has also approached the Centre for an ad hoc assistance of Rs.500.61 crores and three lakh tonnes of rice.

Orissa's drought situation should not be seen in isolation but in the context of the recurring disasters that have been plaguing the State for the last 10 years. Only 1993 and 1994 did not see any major natural calamity. In 1992 and 1995 there were floods, then for the next three years there was drought. In 1999 a 'super cyclone' devastated practically the entire State. The next two years saw drought and floods respectively and in 2002 it is drought again. "All these disasters have been playing havoc with the State's economy and the worst affected are the small and marginal farmers who have lost their means of livelihood," said Balakrishnan, the Special Relief Commissioner.

WITH only about 20 per cent of cultivable land in Chhattisgarh under irrigation, farmers are almost wholly dependent on the rain. The dry spell that lasted from June 24 to July 31, saw farmers abandoning their fields and performing rites and yagnas to propitiate the Rain God. For the people of Bastar even that was a problem, as frogs - which are worshipped in parts of the region to bring rain - simply disappeared in the dry weather. In other places, villagers would get together and recite the Akhand Ramayana in the hope that it might bring rain, or carry out animal sacrifices to appease the gods. Some of the worst-affected districts were Kanker, Bilaspur, Durg, Bastar and Raipur.

In July the State received only 126.09 mm of rain as against the normal quantum of 335.92 mm. The reservoirs in the Mahanadi and Godavari basins are the prime sources of irrigation in the State. But with reservoir levels going down it was not possible to release water through canals. In July, only about 65 per cent of the total agricultural land was sown, of which not more than 20 per cent is expected to yield crops. The Congress(I) State government has declared all the 98 tehsils of the 16 districts in Chhattisgarh drought-hit.

"This year's drought is particularly severe. The paddy crop situation is beyond redemption. Even if it rains continuously now, the crop loss cannot be made good. We may have a yield of less than 20 per cent of the normal," Chief Minister Ajit Jogi told Frontline in Raipur. Even though the paddy crop loss could not be retrieved, there was hope of salvaging the pulses and oilseed crops with the rain in the first two weeks of August.

"During earlier drought-like situations there was distress migration: small farmers and agricultural labourers went to Punjab and Haryana for agricultural work. But this year those States are also drought affected. There is nowhere these people can go,"said Shailesh Pathak, Director, Public Relations.

Of the 14 lakh families living below the poverty line in the State, 11 lakh are landless labourers and marginal farmers. The State government has launched an ambitious employment scheme which, if implemented properly, can make a significant difference to the situation. The scheme provides for immediate employment of eight lakh people every day, which is expected to increase to 15 lakh in January 2003. "For this purpose we require 12.6 lakh tonnes of rice and Rs.456.75 crores from the Centre. To start the food-for-work project, we have demanded an immediate release of three lakh tonnes of rice and Rs.330 crores," Jogi said. The priority projects in the labour-intensive programme will be the construction of water harvesting structures, conservation work and infrastructure development. The food-for-work programme already employs three lakh drought-affected people a day. Each labourer gets Rs.7 and 7 kg of paddy daily.

"We have ensured that no one has to go without food even for a single day. I have authorised the panchayats to extend interest-free green loans from the grain banks under their control, and we have disbursed one quintal (100 kg) of rice for immediate disbursal in each of 19,760 villages in the State," Jogi said. Land lease charges in rural areas have also been waived.

The State government set up round-the-clock control rooms in each of the 16 districts to take stock of the situation on a day-to-day basis. The State Electricity Board was advised to clear all pending proposals for electrification of tubewells and ensure continuous supply of electricity during peak hours. The Electricity Board also increased the subsidy for new pumpset connections from Rs.20,000 to Rs.30,000. Wherever the paddy crop failed, the farmers were advised to take up early duration crops such as sunflower and "moong" (green gram), for which the State government would provide the seeds.

For its drought relief measures, the State government has asked for Rs.2,193 crores from the Centre. Of this amount Rs.1,842.46 crores would be used towards payment in cash and as rice under the employment generation programme. "Paddy and poverty go together," said Jogi. Around 90 per cent of the total cultivable land in the State is under paddy. "To change this scenario, we have launched the Rajiv Kisan Mitan Scheme, which encourages the farmers to take up more than just one crop and also allied activities like animal husbandry and agro-based industrial work," he said. He believes that the only way to bring about a change in the agriculture pattern and avoid future droughts is to increase the irrigation capacity of the State. "With 85 per cent of the population dependent on agriculture, it is the mainstay of our economy. Without increasing the area of irrigated land, there cannot be development in the rural sector. Since the formation of Chhattisgarh, we have increased the irrigation capacity in the State by more than one lakh hectare," he said.

Chhattisgarh came into being in 2000 in the midst of a drought situation. Since then the State government has been engaged in an elaborate water recharging programme. "In the first year of our becoming a separate State, all our water bodies were deepened, and this has stood us in good stead in this year's drought," said Jogi. In its effort to find a long-term solution to the drought problem, the State government is planning to encourage the excavation of the 'dubri' or small pond. "I am trying to convince farmers to leave aside a small portion of their land to store water. If a farmer has five acres of land, he should put aside at least half an acre for a 'dubri'. With water stored in his own land, he will at least be able to save his crops when droughts occur," said Jogi. He hopes to persuade farmers to donate a portion of their land to the government so that it can spend on it.

"Our slogan for this project is Khet ka pani khet me, gaon ka pani gaon me, ghar ka pani ghar me (water for the fields in the fields, water for the village in the village, water for the house in the house)," said Jogi.

Reported by Parvathi Menon in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, T.S. Subramanian in Tamil Nadu and Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay in Orissa and Chhattisgarh.