Click to play videoMumbai/Patna/Bangalore/Bhopal: From the poor farmers to the Prime Minister, everyone is alarmed at the prospect of a drought in the country this year. But the Met department is not losing hopes and says there is no need to press the panic button as yet.
MAHARASHTRA
Suicide zone of Vidharba is experiencing a rainfall deficit of 72 per cent and is in the middle of an acute water crisis. Sixteen hundred villages have been affected.
Fighting water crisis the villagers are digging wells around the polluted lakes for water. There is a drought like situation in Vidharba with no food or water for animals.
Cotton farmers have sown only 2 per cent of their land. The administration is worried but no concrete steps have been taken. This might undo whatever the relief packages have achieved.
BIHAR
The rainfall deficit in Bihar is 91 per cent and monsoons usually arrive in Bihar by June 12 but this year monsoons might be delayed by at least three weeks.
Met department says they don't expect very good monsoons this year.
Temperatures in Gaya have touched a 10 year high of 44.8C. A worried Nitish Kumar has announced a Rs 10 per litre subsidy on diesel for farmers and has asked officers to come up with a contingency plan to fight a posssible drought.
KARNATAKA
Though Karnataka has seen deficient rains in the Malnad and coastal regions, there is good news from interior areas of the state.
The interior areas have received enough rainfall to cover 25 per cent of farming areas in sowing, which is a good 4 lakh hectares better than normal.
July will, however, be the test of the time, with paddy sowing starting that month and as things stand now, there's no need to panic about the rains yet.
MADHYA PRADESH
Madhya Pradesh is critical with a rainfall deficit of over 90 per cent. The state might have to wait till the end of the month for rainfall.
A desperate Shivraj Chouhan is holding Som Yagyas to appease the rain gods.
The state is also facing an acute power crisis. Soyabean, which has already been sown in the majority of the areas, is the worst affected crop.
(With inputs from Raksha Shetty, Prabhakar Kumar, Abhirr VP and Hemender Sharma for CNN IBN)
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