Most taluks in Cauvery basin declared drought-hit

Faced with severe distress and depleted rainfall, the state government on Wednesday declared most of the taluks in Chamarajanagar, Mandya, Mysuru and Hassan districts coming under the Cauvery basin as drought-hit.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said 68 taluks across the  state have been declared drought-hit. The Cabinet took three parameters into consideration before declaring a taluk  drought-hit. These include - 20% below average rainfall, below 50% moisture content and four weeks of continuous dry-spell since June this year, he added. All seven taluks in Mysuru - H D Kote, Hunsur, K R Nagar, Mysuru, Nanjangud, Periyapatna, T Narasipur, four of the seven taluks in Mandya - K R Pet, Malavalli, Pandavapura and Srirangapatna - have been declared drought-hit.

The number of taluks in other districts declared drought-hit include - Chamarajanagar (5), Hassan (4), Kolar (1), Chikkaballapur (1), Tumakuru (1), Chitradurga (3), Ballari (1), Koppal (2), Raichur (3), Yadgir (1), Belagavi (6), Bagalkot (4), Vijayapura (4), Gadag (5), Haveri (2), Dharwad (3), Shivamogga (3), Chikkamagaluru (4), Kodagu (2) and Uttara Kannada (2).

Jayachandra said more taluks could be declared drought-hit in the coming days depending on the weather conditions.