Bihar faces double whammy: flood as well as drought

Bihar is facing a double whammy: Flood in 13 North Bihar districts and drought in 10 South Bihar districts. While North Bihar districts like Sitamarhi, Supaul, Madhubani and Araria were battling floods till a few days back, the spectre of drought looms large over South Bihar districts in the absence of adequate rainfall.

All these 13 districts in North Bihar, mostly sharing borders with Nepal, were facing flood due to heavy rainfall till August first week. As a consequence, crops worth Rs 353 crore sown in the flood-affected districts were washed away in the turbulent water.

Now, contrast this with South Bihar districts. (The mighty Ganga bifurcates Bihar). There are 10 districts in South Bihar, including Gaya, Rohtas, Aurangabad, Jamui and Banka, which faces the drought-like situation. In the absence of sufficient rainfall, the water table has also gone down, thereby adding to farmers’ woes.

The maximum rain deficit has been witnessed in Gaya which received 201.7 mm rainfall as against the normal 289.2 mm rainfall in July. Similarly, Aurangabad too witnessed deficit rainfall of 238.3 mm as against 295.6 mm.

The Indian Met Department, however, says that overall deficit rainfall in all the 38 districts combined together is merely eight per cent. “Between June 1 and August 13, Bihar witnessed 581.5 mm rainfall as against the 634.3 mm rainfall, which essentially means an eight per cent deficit,” said a weather expert.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department has set a target of sowing Kharif crops in 33 lakh hectares of land. “But till mid-August, crops have been sown in 23.5 lakh hectares of land. Last year too, Bihar had faced a similar situation. A delay in sowing leads to a shortfall in production,” argued AK Sinha, an Agriculture Department official.