Read at : Google Alert – drought
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=134601
Drought in Bundelkhand changing lives
Crop failure, scanty rainfall and slump in food production have led to drought in the Bundelkhand region. The drought has shattered the villagers’ earning avenues and the mounting electricity bills have added to the misery of people.
AFTER YEARS of making comfortable living out of his farms, Lakhan Patel, a native of Wigpur village, Laudi Block (Chhatarpur) is in serious debt trap. He had borrowed rupees three lakhs as loan in 2004, out of which he had repaid an amount of rupees one lakh in the following year. Since then, due to persistent crop failure, year after year, he has not been able to pay back anything to the bank. Consequently, his unpaid loan amount together with interest today stands more than the principal amount. He says, “Once there used to be about 70-80 quintals produce in my farms, which would fetch me an income of Rs 1.5 lakhs annually. However, in the last two years there has been zero earning out of the farm.”
Lakhan is not an exception, there are many like him out there in the blazing Bundelkhand for whom prosperity has become a remnant of the past. The way ahead, is the long endless road of turmoil, struggle and life amidst drought.
Owing to the crop failure, scanty rainfall and slump in overall food production, the three districts out of six in Bundelkhand region, namely, Chattarpur, Tikamgarh and Panna are severely stricken by drought, in the last five years.
The dismal state of agriculture in these regions has also affected the condition of livestock here. Most families in the affected regions have either lost their cattle to drought or have set it free to find its own means of survival. As the villagers themselves struggle to live each day as it passes, the survival of their cattle is the last thing on their mind. Hakkim Singh Yadav of village Wigpur, who was once the owner of 37 cattle, unhappily tells that there are only seven left today.
The plight of drought and its aftermath is not the end of problems for the villagers in such hard times. Rati Ram, a native of Kena village, Niwari Block, Tikamgarh, owns two acres of land. The electricity bills debited to his account are upwards of rupees 42,000 for the last six months.
However, the villagers report that since last three years, there has been no power supply in the village. In fact, the power line itself has been dismantled from the village six years back.
On one hand, the drought has shattered the villagers’ hope of earning a dignified living in the past five years and on the other, the mounting electricity bills have added to the misery of these people by reminding them of their good old days.
While the government chooses to remain ignorant of the real problem, crop failure in the drought-stricken areas is forcing villagers to migrate to nearby states in large numbers. This is giving birth to a number of other associated problems like indebtedness, maintenance and survival of cattle, health issues and exploitation of different social groups like women, children, dalits and tribals etc.
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