Andhra Pradesh: El Nino And Rayalaseema’s Drought Legacy

An inscription at the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Kadiri in Satya Sai district describes human skulls rolling in the wind outside the temple due to starvation. The period came to be associated with the Devi or Durgadevi famine.

The 19th Century recorded a series of droughts in 1832, 1837, 1854, 1860-61, 1868 and 1870-76. The most devastating was the 1876-78 Dhatukaru famine, also known as the Dokkala, Great or Mushti famine. This derived its name from the Telugu year Dhatu.

People were reduced to skin and bones, with estimates suggesting that lakhs of people died in Rayalaseema alone due to hunger while double the number of milch animals either died or were sold to slaughter houses due to lack of fodder.

Drought has never been a one-off natural calamity in Rayalaseema. For centuries, recurring rainfall failures have shaped the region’s social and economic life, triggering hunger, migration, livestock deaths and crop failures.

Historian K Narayana observed that droughts continued into the 20th Century, including major episodes in 1901, 1905, 1907-08, 1911-13, 1917 and 1923-24. After Independence, the region witnessed the 1946-51 and 1948-53 famine, when gruel (ganji) centres run by the government, the Ramakrishna Mission and Communist outfits helped save lives.

The region’s vulnerability remains evident even today. In 2023, around 90 per cent of the agricultural land in the region, mainly Satya Sai and Anantapur areas, were r affected by drought, with 49 mandals declared drought-hit.

Against this backdrop, the present El Niño warning is causing fresh concern. Rainfall deficiency has crossed 70 per cent in some Rayalaseema districts, while temperatures remain high even in September, crossing 40 degrees.

Already, a major portion of groundnut and intercrop red gram incurred huge losses for farmers in the region while there was additional damage in black cotton soils where cotton was sown. But, the outstanding orchards of sweet orange, banana and pomegranate perished due to lack of sufficient water in the borewells.

In a pathetic situation, a farmer from Bathalapalli broke into tears while cutting a 10-year-old sweet orange orchard. He was unable to save the plants due to the deep depletion of ground water sources.

According to ground water department officials, the Anantapur area needs at least 150tmc-ft of water through rainfall to recharge its ground water sources. A Manjunath from Madakasira area lamented that groundwater is not available even at a 1200-ft depth and he’s unable to save the arecanut orchard spread in 10 acres.