Drought Scare: Tankers & fodder camps multiply to fight water scarcity across Maharashtra

As the intensity of drought increases, the government has increased the number of tankers supplying drinking water as well as fodder camps across the state. Currently, 5261 tankers are supplying drinking water at major drought impacted areas, while 9 lakh cattle are being fed in 1348 fodder camps in the state.

On Wednesday, revenue minister Chandrakant Patil had called for a cabinet subcommittee meeting to take stock of the drought situation as well as relief measure work. Patil also heads the cabinet sub-committee that handles drought mitigation in the state.

According to the data state government released data, Marathwada is the worst affected by the drought. As summer turns harsher making the situation worse, 210 government and 5061 private tankers are supplying drinking water to 4176 villages and 9241 hamlets across the state that are drought-affected.

As per government figures, currently, 1069 tankers are supplying water to 715 localities of Aurangabad district, while 867 tankers to 615 localities of Beed district and 507 to 427 villages in Jalna of Marathwada region. Ahmednagar, which is one of the worst drought-affected districts, received 772 tankers of supply water to 523 localities daily. The record also reveals that some parts of Maharashtra are not yet receiving tanker water. These include Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Sindhudurg.

All in all, there are 151 talukas in the state that are declared as drought affected. The central government has released a total of Rs.6500 crores as drought relief fund.

Animals are also hugely impacted. Government data says that the 9 lakh animals are fed in total 1348 fodder camps across the state. In Beed, Ahmednagar and Solapur districts there are 601,493 and 125 fodder camps respectively. The animals are all electronically tagged. "We asked the respective local authority to supply a total of 18 kg of fodder/feed to each cattle per day while 9 kg for the small cattle. The expenditure on the feed per cattle is Rs 90 while Rs 45 for small animals. We have been monitoring the drought area and fodder camp situation on a regular basis," said a senior government officer.