Ballu Vaah Bharvad and his wife with their cattle in Bhagaon village. (Express photo: Shubhangi Khapre)At Bhagaon village, Ballu Vaah Bharvad is worried about the rapidly depleting level of water in the well located on a sugarcane field. With 90 cows, calves and other cattle to feed and provide water for, Bharvad and his extended family members are considering shifting the animals to a nearby cattle camp for the months of May and June. “If the village well dries, we will have to move to another village with our cows and cattle,” says the elderly Bharvad.
Pointing to the herd of cows mooing and pacing in the field, he says, “They want more water.”
Bharvad pleads with farmer Vinayak Parashram Jagtap, who owns the sugarcane field, for help to tackle the water scarcity and fodder.
Bharvad’s father migrated to Maharashtra from Surendranagar in Chuda taluka in Gujarat seven decades ago. He belongs to the “gawli” tribe, which tends to cattle for livelihood. Vaijapur has been Bharvad’s home for the last 15 years. His four sons and other family members help him look after the cattle.
Aware that the crisis was going to get worse as mercury levels cross the 43 degrees Celsius mark in the district, Jagtap suggests to Bharvad that he move the animals to the cattle camp for the next two months. “The village well still has water. But it will not be enough in the coming days. Moreover, fodder from the fields is almost over,” he adds.
In peak summer, there is no kindness for cows and cattle. Every farmer has the same problem — depleting water and fodder.
The Marathwada region, which has eight districts, is the worst hit by the drought in Maharashtra. Earlier, after reviewing the drought situation, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said, “The government has set up 12,064 cattle camps and deployed 4,774 water tankers in 12,116 villages.” He assured additional relief measures for the next two months.
At Dewalwadi village in Pathardi, the cattle camp came up on May 1 and would continue till June first week. Uddhav Laxam Shinde, a villager, has already parked his cattle there. “We have 300 cows and cattle. Water is being supplied by tankers. All the water structures, ponds and wells are dry. Even our village with a population of 1,800 is dependent on tankers,” he said.
The state government, on its part, has banked on the Jalyukt Shivar project, where villagers build small water structures to store water, to tackle the water scarcity. “In the last four-and-half years, we have built 5.57 lakh water structures in 16,522 villages under Jalyukt Shivar. Each project is geo-tagged. So there is no question of any manipulation,” an official in the water conservation department said. “However, when the water stock is good, farmers use it to irrigate multiple crops. So, the drought has pushed us back to square one in many villages,” he added.
In the last four-and-half years, the government has spent Rs 7,692 crore to create 5,57,386 water storage structures under Jalyukt Shivar in 16,522 villages, creating a water storage capacity of 24,05,502 TMC (thousand million cubic feet).
State’s Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil, however, said, “Although the drought is severe, we will manage the water crisis with tankers. We won’t require water trains as was done in 2015-16. The situation is under control.”
Fadnavis believes Jalyukt Shivar has helped ward off the crisis to a great extent, which otherwise would have been more severe. However, he feels better water management policies at the grassroots is still necessary.
