Drought-hit villagers leave MP for greener pastures

BHENPURA (RAJGARH), DEC 27: For the past eight months, 60-year-old Motilal Pitabhora of Bhenpura village in Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh distr...

BHENPURA (RAJGARH), DEC 27: For the past eight months, 60-year-old Motilal Pitabhora of Bhenpura village in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district has done little but pray for rain. His eight bighas of land stretch out before him, baked and barren, and his eyes seek out only the patches of dry, prickly grass that will feed his four, by-now emaciated head of cattle. “I have nothing to do all day, no cultivation to tend to,” he says.

Bhenpura, which is about three km off the nearest asphalt road, and 12 km from Rajgarh, the nearest town, is facing drought conditions that are likely to become severe. It hasn’t rained here since April. The village’s farmers have not been able to sow a rabi crop, which is usually wheat and soya bean. If there is no rain in the next two months, there will be no drinking water, since one of the two handpumps in this village of about 200 people has dried up.

Already, two families have migrated to Kota, about 230 km away, in search of labour. “We are also planning to leave soon. Maybe to Bhopal, or Kota, in search of work. Only the old and infirm will stay behind,” says Dev Singh. He apologises because there’s no milk to serve tea, and offers a few dried pieces of supari instead.

Story continues below this ad

Bhenpura’s twin village, Bhenpuri, about a kilometre away, looks like a cluster of ghost hamlets, since most of its inhabitants have already left.

Though the situation is Betul district is not as bad, the sugarcane farmers of Babai village are scared. “The water now comes in a trickle in our pipe, while earlier it used to gush. We can’t sow the next season’s crop if there is no water,” worries Madhosingh.

“It is a severe drought affecting the western MP belt, and Rajgarh district will suffer an estimated 60 per cent loss in crop this season,” informs Rajgarh Deputy Collector, J.N. Kansodiya. Of the two lakh hectares of cultivated land in Rajgarh, only about 80,000 hectares have yielded a harvest. The average rainfall in the region has dropped from 1,100 cm in 1999 to 631 cm this year.

Rajgarh is one of the 22 districts in the state that have been identified as drought-hit; the state government has drawn up a Rs 23-crore remedial action plan, which includes construction of artificial tanks and ponds and well recharging.

Story continues below this ad

Unlike in neighbouring Gujarat, where several traditional water harvesting structures such as check dams and bunds built by certain village communities have helped people put up a better fight against persistent water scarcity, Madhya Pradesh’s villages have hardly any techniques for conserving rain water. They depend mostly on the monsoon to irrigate their fields. Though the Nevaj river runs along Bhenpura’s borders, “we can’t buy a pump for irrigation because we don’t have the Rs 60,000 it costs,” laments Prabhu Lal Singh.

In Motipura village, 35-year-old farmer Bhagwan Singh has already sent his younger brother to Bhopal in search of work. “God gives us water every year. This year He has taken it away,” says his wife. His few acres of semi-arid land, parched further by rainless months, have yielded only eight quintals of wheat this year, a far cry from the 80 quintals he produced in 1999.