Lackluster monsoon rain this year has forced Bihar government to declare 33 of 38 districts drought hit and the situation in remaining five districts Arwal, Banka, Rohtas, Kishanganj and Araria is being monitored.
This is second straight year when monsoon has lasted for just 15 days compared to the average of 45-46 days since onset of monsoon. Bihar has recorded 668.6 mm of rain compared to normal of 892.2 mm thus a deficiency of 25 percent has been recorded in the state from June to September till now.
Erratic and deficient monsoon has hit the paddy crop hard as the output is expected to decline by 20 percent to 6 million tones in the state compared to the annual average of 7-8 million tones.
Scanty rain has further worsened the underground water table making irrigation more difficult. The state government has decided to provide assistance to farmers under the state disaster response corpus and the central disaster response corpus with immediate effect. The government has also decided to defer collection of land rent and cess, irrigation charge, electricity bills and cooperative loans in 2013-14 from the farmers.
Photograph by Srinivasa Krishna
