Drought wreaks havoc on Indian farmers

A punishing drought in western India is hurting livestock farmers as the region experiences water shortages.

She is 11 years old and lives in Bonewadi, a small town in Maharashtra, with her mother, two sisters and one brother. She is in grade six and walks 3km to attend school. In the evening, she walks 7km to feed her cattle at a camp. Meet Asha, a young girl born in a farmer's family that owns 11 acres of land, which is usually sufficient to earn enough money to make a living under normal conditions.

Then there is Digambar Pandurang Atpadkar, a 70-year-old farmer who owns 60 acres of land and four wells in Vartuke Malwade, a small village, also in Maharashtra, India's second most populous state. He and his wife have walked 10km to reach the cattle camp, which offers emergency food and shelter, to save their eight animals.

Asha and Atpadkar are just two among the many who have been hit by drought in India. And surprisingly, majority of the farmers and cattle taking refuge in the cattle camp are from Mann taluk in Satara district - that has 21 cattle camps this year - which is under the parliamentary constituency of Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who recently claimed to have spent millions of rupees supporting irrigation facilities in Maharashtra.

Moreover, Mann taluk is also adjacent to the sugar belt - sugarcane is an infamously water-intensive crop - which politicians consider their stronghold, having poured in a lion's share of Maharashtra's development funds here. Yet, the region, popularly known as Manndesh in local folklore, continues to remain at the mercy of whimsical rains.

Triggering concerns of poor farm output and higher inflation, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted less rain from June to September. "We expect 15 per cent shortfall in the seasonal rains," LS Rathore, the director general of the IMD, told reporters.

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Karnataka orders all temples to hold prayers for rain

This was the only thing left. Yes, Karnataka has asked all the 34,000 temples in the state to conduct a special pooja to please the rain gods.

The state is having its worst drought in 42 years and the government has gone a step ahead, asking all the temples to conduct pooja seeking rain. If the pooja is conducted at a cost of Rs 5,000 each, then it would cost Rs 17 crore! Yes, a whopping Rs 17 crore!

Who has given the orders? The state endowments ministry. Minister KS Poojari, whose last name means "priest", has not delayed in given a statement and clarifying that tax-payers' money will not be used for these rituals to propitiate the rain gods. And who is paying money that too Rs 17 crore? “Temple trusts will fund the poojas,” Poojari has said.

It’s not just churches, even mosques and churches in the state have also been asked to conduct special prayers for rain. The BJP government of Jagadish Shettar wants these prayers conducted on July 27 and August 7.

Who knows if given a chance this government will ask all the temples to conduct poojas to save the government from frequently falling, and the state would sponsor the poojas, not to mention that it would be taxpayers’ money. God save the state and people…