Drought management in Maharashtra
Drought has intensified in Maharashtra with just 18.51 per cent live storage left in dams, 8.5 lakh livestock in fodder camps and 12,000 villages and hamlets depending on water tankers.
An estimated 82 lakh farmers are affected by the drought. The situation is likely to worsen in the Marathwada and Vidarbha (Nagpur) regions, where storage levels have depleted to 5 and 10 per cent, respectively.
The State Water Resources Department data on May 3 showed that 3,267 major, medium and minor dams in the State have just 18.51 per cent live storage compared to 29.95 per cent on the same date last year. 18 major projects in the State don’t have live storage.
Nashik division is also facing a water crisis with 17.62 per cent water storage left in dams compared to 30.81 per cent last year. The sugar-rich Pune region has 21.43 per cent water stock compared to 33.87 per cent water on the same day last year.
Nearly 4,774 water tankers are plying in the State whereas during the same time last year 937 tankers were deployed to quench the thirst of villagers. 1,264 fodder camps across the State have sheltered 8.5 lakh cattle and demands for more fodder camps are pouring in from the Marathwada region.
The people of Marathawada and Vidharbha in Maharashtra, who have been reeling under the impact of drought, will have to endure the pain a little longer. The Indian Meteorological Department has predicted that both the regions will get average to above average rainfall this year but they will have to wait a little longer for it.
The state has seven per cent of the required water in reserves. Most of the districts in Maharashtra have been declared drought-affected. In the worst affected regions like, Marathawada, the lack of adequate water supply has allowed tanker mafias to expand their illegal operations.
Maharashtra government is planning to induce artificial rainfall. But any such action will be too little too late as it will likely fail to help severely affected areas. In some regions, people are travelling several kilometres for a bottle of water, which is not fit to drink. Animals and birds have been affected too. Many of the birds are dying due to dehydration.
The State government issued permissions to NGOs, activists and politicians to open fodder camps in the drought affected areas. Following this 1,638 fodder camps were opened to shelter 10,53,809 cattle. The State government reimburses the expenditure based on the number of cattle in the camp.
Officials in Marathwada, especially in Beed district found that those who were running cattle camps had inflated the number of cattle to extract money from the government. Farmers in Beed have been complaining that fodder camp owners, most of them affiliated with political parties are showing bogus cattle on paper and drawing money from the administration.
As of now over 7,000 water tankers are plying in Maharashtra as per the government data. These are government-run tankers and it is estimated that almost same number of private tankers are playing in the State without any control. In drought affected Aurangabad city, a private water tanker of 2,000 litre costs between ₹500-700.
With a population of 1.87 crore, most of Marathwada falls in the Godavari basin but except Godavari no major river flows in the region and small rivers such as Purna, Sindhphana, Bindusara and Shivna fall dry as summer approaches. All these rivers are being robbed of their cover as a massive network of sand mafia is working in the region, according to villagers. Even as the district administrations in the region are taking actions intermittently, villagers allege nexus between government officials and sand mafia.
FDI in Maharashtra
Maharashtra lies on the western coast of India. It is the third largest state in India, occupying approximately 9.4% of the country’s total geographical area. The state is well connected to all the major markets with 3 international airports, over 303,000 km of road network and 6,165 km of rail network. The state’s coastline of 720 km and presence of 55 ports facilitate about 22% of the total cargo transport in India. Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), the largest container port in the country, is connected to 34 Container Freight Stations (CFS) and 46 Inland Container Depots (ICD). The state has a total installed power capacity of over 44,000 MW.
Maharashtra has a good presence of industrial clusters, especially automobile, IT & ITeS, chemicals, textiles and food processing clusters and offers lucrative investment opportunities in these sectors. The state attracted about 31% of the total FDI inflows in India during 2000-18. It contributed about 15% to the country’s GDP in 2018.
MPSC Notes brings Prelims and Mains programs for MPSC Prelims and MPSC Mains Exam preparation. Various Programs initiated by MPSC Notes are as follows:-
- MPSC Mains Tests and Notes Program
- MPSC Prelims Exam 2020- Test Series and Notes Program
- MPSC Prelims and Mains Tests Series and Notes Program
- MPSC Detailed Complete Prelims Notes