Drought Management

Let there not be a "contest" between the Union and the state, the Supreme Court said on Monday while hearing the Karnataka government's plea seeking a direction to the Centre to release financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to the state for drought management. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta was told by Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who were appearing for the Centre, that they would seek instructions in the matter. The apex court, which observed that various state governments were required to approach the court, initially asked the Centre to file a response to Karnataka's plea. Urging the court to take up the matter after two weeks, the solicitor general said they would take instructions in the matter. "Let there not be a contest between the Union and the state," the bench said. Mehta said instead of filing a petition in the top court, if somebody would have spoken to the authorities on the issue

The study showed that megadroughts of 20 years or more were a natural feature of the Australian hydroclimate

The Karnataka government has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to release financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to the state for drought management. The petition has also sought to declare that the Centre's action in not releasing the financial assistance for drought arrangement as per the NDRF is "ex-facie violative" of the fundamental rights of the people of the state guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. It said the state is reeling under "severe drought", affecting the lives of its people and for the Kharif 2023 season, which starts in June and ends in September, a total of 223 out of 236 taluks are declared as drought-affected. The plea said 196 taluks are categorised as severely affected and the remaining 27 as moderately affected. "Cumulatively for Kharif 2023 season, the agriculture and horticulture crop loss have been reported in more than 48 lakh hectares with the estimated loss (cost of cultivation

Amid the acute water shortage in Bengaluru, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said on Monday the State had not witnessed such a severe drought in the past three-four decades. "In the last 30-40 years we had not seen such drought; though there was drought earlier we had never declared such a large number of taluks as drought-affected,", he told reporters here. "Wherever Cauvery river water has to be supplied, (it) is being done, but out of 13,900 odd borewells in Bengaluru, about 6,900 borewells have become defunct," he said. Shivakumar said the government has taken "things under its control" and arranged tankers to supply water.

Karnataka Minister for Sugar and Agriculture Marketing Shivanand Patil's statement that farmers wish for repeated droughts in the state so that their loans get waived has caused a stir, with the opposition on Monday terming it as an 'affront' to the farming community and seeking his removal from the Ministry. Coming down heavily on the Congress government over the remark, the BJP has urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to take his resignation. Patil had in September stoked a controversy for his statement that cases of farmer suicides started rising after the compensation amount to the kin of the deceased was hiked from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. Speaking at an event in Belagavi on Sunday, Patil said, "Krishna river water is free, current is also free. The Chief Minister also gave seeds and fertilizer. Farmers will only wish that there should be repeated droughts, because their loans will be waived. You should not wish that way -- even if you don't wish there will be drought once in ...

Currently, numerous individuals across villages in the state are squarely dependent on external sources of water, such as tankers, to quench their drinking water needs

The Amazon rainforest in Brazil is facing a severe drought that may affect around 500,000 people by the end of the year, authorities said on Tuesday. Many are already struggling to access essential supplies such as food and water, because the principal means of transportation in the region is waterways, and river levels are historically low. Droughts also impact fishing, a means of subsistence for many riverside communities. Amazonas state declared an environmental emergency two weeks ago in response to the prolonged drought and launched a response plan valued at USD 20 million. Authorities will also distribute food and water supplies as well as personal hygiene kits, the state's civil defence agency said in a statement. Gov. Wilson Lima was in Brazil's capital, Brasilia, on Tuesday to meet with representatives of the federal government. Lima spoke with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to discuss the drought. The different levels of government will coordinate measures in suppor

Here's a lowdown on the process of determining drought as India braces for the southwest monsoon after four surplus-rainfall years

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh will inaugurate the conference in Delhi tomorrow