As fear of yet another drought looming large over Jharkhand, the Disaster Management Department has begun its preparatory exercise to mitigate the effects of a deficient monsoon, for which alarm has already been raised. The department has issued instructions to all district administrations to initiate steps at their level to deal with the problem which is not new to the State.
“We have sent disaster management plans to all districts and they have been told to arrange foodgrains to deal with the problems in drought -affected areas,” said State Programme Officer, Disaster Management, Colonel SK Shrivastava.Notably, the State has faced drought like situations seven times since its formation. Over the years, the disaster management plan for drought has been planned with emphasis on contingent crops as a substitute of paddy and sensitising the farmers had been a vital aspect of the disaster management plan.
According to a report submitted to the 13th Finance Commission, during the last decade Jharkhand has witnessed an increasing trend of severity of drought. Total food production decreased to half by the year 2010 and the State had faced deficit of rainfall in the year 2010 by 47 per cent, 10 lakh hectares of area could not have plantation of paddy, said the report.
The report also found that Palamau district had shown decreasing rainfall in last 22 years and a decreasing trend in the rainfall in Jharkhand during the last Monsoon season have been observed. “We will tell farmers to consider crops alternate to paddy. We will tell them to cultivate pulses instead as it requires less water,” pointed out Shrivastava.
In the meantime, district administration has begun the exercise of distributing equipments to register rainfall on daily basis. Moreover, distribution of Kharif seeds with expectation of a normal monsoon has begun where as distribution of seeds of contingent crops, used in case of deficient monsoon, will begin if drought like situation appeared imminent.
“We will wait till the end of June to start distribution of contingent seeds. And, we are educating farmers about crops to cultivate according to the changing monsoon,” maintained Director Agriculture, KP Sahu.
Given the history of drought in Jharkhand, the 13th Finance Commission has allotted Rs5 crore towards capacity building in the State. As part of the capacity building respective district administration had sensitised Panchayati Raj Institutions. However, the plan stood partly implemented as no State Disaster Response Force had been constituted till date despite the announcement made by Minister Disaster Management Mannan Malick in October 2013.
Meanwhile, the department is also waiting for the students of Indian Institute of Management Ranchi (IIMR) to submit report that will also focus on drought management and mitigation of disaster resulting because of drought.“We are waiting for their report. They are technocrats and will bring innovative ideas on disaster management. We expect a comprehensive disaster management plan (including drought) to be ready by June 20,” concluded the State Programme Officer.