101 Taluks Qualify To Declare Drought-Affected in Karnataka
Therefore, we are compelled to declare drought in phases,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.
BENGALURU: 101 taluks have qualified to be declared drought-hit while 32 others are under review to be brought under drought-hit taluks in the State, stated Deputy Chief Minister Dr G. Parameshwara.
Explaining the drought declaration process, Parameshwara said the Union Government’s Drought Manual, 2020 prescribes several trigger points. Under Trigger-1, he said, a taluk qualifies if it receives no rainfall for three or more weeks, termed dry-spell weeks. Under Trigger-2, he said, factors such as the extent of sowing, condition of sown crops, soil moisture, groundwater levels and water availability in tanks and reservoirs.
Continuing, he said, based on these parameters, “We carried out the assessment and ground-truthing. 134 taluks qualified under Trigger-1. Following ground-truthing, 101 taluks have currently qualified to be declared drought-affected. The remaining 32 taluks that qualified under Trigger-1 are under review.”
After the first phase of declaring 101 taluks drought-affected, he said the situation will be reviewed every 15-days. Ground-truthing has been carried out hobli-wise and the findings analysed before identifying drought-affected areas.
Pointing at limitations in the Union Government’s criteria, Parameshwara said “in some taluks, even if there is no rain for two-weeks and it rains just once in between, the taluk may lose eligibility under Trigger-1, even though crops may not have grown.
“Such problems exist in the present criteria. We have repeatedly urged the Union Government to revise them as was done earlier but the Centre has not addressed the issue. Therefore, we are compelled to declare drought in phases,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.
As far as the sowing is concerned, Parameshwara said sowing in the State stood at 71 percent. A target of 84.10 lakh hectares, sowing had taken place in only 60 lakh hectares. In 240 taluks, sowing was below 75 percent in 104 taluks and in 42 taluks it was below 25 percent.
According to the Moisture Adequacy Index as on August 26, he said, 178 taluks are facing soil-moisture stress and 86 taluks face severe moisture deficiency and 92 taluks face moderate deficiency affecting the crop growths.
