Vijayapura May Get More Drought-Hit Taluks, Says Minister M.B. Patil
Minister M.B. Patil said more taluks in Vijayapura district are likely to be declared drought-hit, with ground truthing for four taluks to be completed by Monday.
More taluks in Vijayapura district are likely to be added to the State's list of drought-hit areas, district in-charge Minister M.B. Patil said on Sunday, responding to demands that Indi, Chadachan and Talikote be declared drought-affected.
Mr. Patil, who holds the Large and Medium Industries portfolio, said officials were taking the necessary steps to include every taluk in the State that has faced a rainfall shortage, in line with the evaluation criteria set out in the Drought Management Manual 2020.
The guidelines require assessment against 11 criteria, including rainfall scarcity, humidity, satellite data and field inspections, he said. Field studies are under way and are expected to be completed by Monday, after which the State government will issue a notification. Mr. Patil indicated that all deserving taluks in Vijayapura are likely to make the list.
Declaring a taluk drought-hit involves several stages, the Minister explained. A comprehensive drought assessment, graded as moderate or severe, is first carried out at the government level using criteria such as a continuous dry spell of three weeks and impact indicators drawn from satellite and remote sensing data.
That assessment goes to a Cabinet sub-committee chaired by the Deputy Chief Minister. Once the panel clears the list, a notification is issued and the process moves to ground truthing, or field verification.
Field checks in the notified taluks are conducted through a dedicated Ground Truthing mobile app. Teams from the agriculture, horticulture and revenue departments assess crop loss within four days for survey numbers in villages selected at random through the app. The ground-truthing report then determines whether a taluk is classified as moderately or severely drought-affected, and the classification is placed before the Cabinet before a final drought notification is issued.
In Vijayapura, ground truthing has already been completed for the taluks covered in the first and second batches — Vijayapura, Kolhar, Nidagundi, Basavana Bagewadi, Babaleshwar and Tikota — and these have been officially declared severely drought-affected.
Sindagi, Alamela, Devara Hippargi and Muddebihal have been notified for ground truthing, and the exercise is currently in progress. Mr. Patil said the work in these four taluks would be finished by Monday, following which the government would issue the final notification on their status.