Centre to assess drought conditions in Karnataka and Maharashtra

India’s central government will send teams to Karnataka and Maharashtra to assess drought conditions, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Monday. Speaking at a national conference on preparations for the rabi season, Chouhan said a central team would travel to Karnataka on October 3. He said he had spoken to Maharashtra’s chief minister and that a team would also be sent to that state.

Karnataka has declared a drought, while Maharashtra has declared drought across roughly two-thirds of its territory. Chouhan said Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh faced a looming drought crisis. The minister said crops had been affected in some places but had not failed everywhere.

He noted that harvests were good in some areas while other regions faced threats from drought and water scarcity. Chouhan linked the conditions to changing weather patterns and said the effects of climate change were increasingly visible. He observed that weather was unusually cold at a time of year that typically brought intense heat.

He also referred to reports of deaths in Uttar Pradesh caused by unseasonal rain and said officials needed to consider the impact of unusual weather while preparing for the winter rabi season. Chouhan urged officials to work together and assured the affected states that the Centre stood firmly with them. He said preparations for the rabi crop had to take account of the difficulties experienced during the kharif season, when changing weather caused concern.