The state departments concerned will conduct a joint survey of the drought-hit districts and submit a report to the Centre for grants from the NDRF.
Of the 30 districts across Karnataka, 23 districts have been declared drought-hit due to deficit rainfall in the monsoon season, an official said on Wednesday.
"Though the monsoon (June-September) was near normal in coastal, south interior and Malnad regions with record rainfall causing floods in seven districts, deficit-rains forced the state government to declare 23 districts drought-hit," an official told IANS in Bengaluru after a review meeting.
According to the Indian Metrological Department (IMD) data, the cumulative seasonal rainfall across the southern state was minus 2 per cent from June 1 to September 12, with coastal areas recording 3 per cent above normal, and south interior region 7 per cent above normal, while north interior area posted 26 per cent deficit.
"A cabinet sub-committee on disaster management had identified 86 taluks (sub-districts) in the state’s erstwhile Bombay province in northwest and the Hyderabad-Karnataka region in the northern region due to dry weather," said the official, citing a report its chairman and State Revenue Minister RV Deshpande submitted to the Chief Minister’s office on Tuesday.
As per the revised guidelines, a taluk can be declared drought-hit with a 60 per cent rain deficit or a dry spell of three weeks with 33 per cent crop loss.
"Preliminary estimates reveal the kharif crop loss in the absence of timely rains is about Rs 8,000 crore, as sowing was done in 63 lakh hectares of farm lands out of 75 lakh hectares across the state," said the official.
The state departments concerned, including agriculture, horticulture and sericulture will conduct a joint survey of the drought-hit districts and submit a report to the central government for grants from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF).
"Two central teams are touring seven flood-hit districts, including Dakshina Kannada, Hassan, Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru for spot assessment of the damage to life and property caused by heavy rains," added the official.
The state government will also request the central government to rush another team to assess the damage caused by drought in the 23 districts.

So far, six counties have declared states of emergency.
Herbert’s desk soon.
Styler said low snowfall amounts over the winter months have caused the water shortage.
Elk and deer are migrating, even dying in some areas, because of the lack of water.
Aside from praying for more snow this winter, DNR said they are hoping to get emergency protocol in place for farmers who are unable to irrigate certain crops due to the lack of moisture.
DNR says individuals can help curb the effects of the drought.
"Cutting your shower down by one minute can save 1,800 gallons of water a year," said Joshua Palmer, outreach director for the Dept.
of Water Resources.
On average, Utahns are using two and 3,000 gallons of water every time they water their landscape.
Utah DNR released numbers about low water levels at reservoirs around the state.

That was 2015, when there was virtually no snowpack in the mountains and all the water stored in reservoirs throughout the state was insufficient to get us through the next year.
The governor waited until water stored in reservoirs had recovered before declaring the statewide drought was over.
Locally, the drought is not over.
In the San Bernardino Valley, the drought continues into the 20th year with no end in sight.
• Because rainfall has been well below normal every single year; and • Because water stored as groundwater in our local basins remain at record lows.
In fact, less water is stored as groundwater today than 64 years ago when the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District was created to import water from Northern California from the new California Aqueduct that was being constructed.
It must work for a region that is continuing to grow.
You are reading these side-by-side columns because soon you’ll be asked to vote for the director to serve you the next four years.
I am the director, running for re-election who you chose in 2014.
The Valley District staff reports that annual rainfall and the amount of water stored as groundwater in our local basins has declined for the past 20 years.

In 2018, a new set of challenges continues to affect residents of Badhan district as drought conditions persist in most parts of Sanaag region.
As other parts of Somalia received significantly above average rains during the April to June Gu rainfall, which started earlier than normal in most parts of Somalia, extreme water and pasture shortages were reported in rainfall deficit areas of Bari, Nugaal, Sool and Sanaag regions, specifically Northern Inland Pastoralist, Nugaal Valley and parts of Golis and Coastal Deeh livelihood zones.
Badhan district continues to face massive water and food scarcity due to the failed rains.
The main water supply in the area is water trucking but with the poor road network, water prices have gone up making the very important commodity so expensive for the residents.
According to an assessment conducted by HADMA in April 2018, pastoralists in the Northern Inland Pastoral (NIP), Badhan, Iskushuban, Gumbax, Bayla, and Hafun districts are migrating to areas that have received rains in search of food, water and pasture for their animals.
Host communities across Puntland are in need of an integrated response such as water trucking, food distribution, cash distribution and livelihood support to sustain their recovery.
ACTED has been supporting thousands of vulnerable communities in the region thanks to funding from SHF, ECHO, SUEZ Foundation and USAID-OFDA to ensure they have access to food, water and other basic needs.
Currently, ACTED is supporting 3 villages in Badhan District with rehabilitation of three water facilities to assist 15,000 households while supporting 568 households financially to increase their purchasing power.
With both the drought and floods baring the same effects to the Somali people, caution must be taken to ensure the effects are dealt with to avoid a catastrophe.
Emphasis should be placed on the ongoing water scarcity, loss of livelihoods and food crises in Badhan.

According to Billy Bruce, a Stockton farmer and auctioneer, the U.S Drought Monitor placed the county in D-3 drought conditions, classified as extreme.
Recent rains improved the situation last week within the county to D-1 and D-2 levels, moderate to severe.
The farmers would be given a license and could keep or share with other farmers any of the harvested hay they had from their lottery selection.
The hay had to be used or shared by the farmer who did the haying, but it could not be sold.
Additionally, drought assistance involving water hauling or pumping was unveiled by Boeckmann.
He provided those at the event a card listing several websites and phone numbers — the information was targeted at those farmers needing assistance during the dry summer of 2018.
After he spoke and took questions, several farmers said before the rains came their land had turned brown, what little was left was not quality hay and the amount for harvesting was limited.
Those who grew crops spoke about how small their crop was when it came time to harvest.
Chris Chinn, director of the state’s department of agriculture, had statistics which showed how poor the quality was for crops grown during the 2018 summer drought as she talked about what her agency was doing.
She then introduced Boeckmann.

Kenyans forced to relocate due to drought are far more likely to experience violence than are Kenyans generally, researchers reported on Monday.
A study carried out by the University of Utah and the University of Nairobi found that violence affected a "staggering" 43 per cent of survey respondents who reported being displaced because of drought.
Academics have predicted that violent conflicts may become more frequent as climate change creates environmental stresses leading to large-scale population movements.
And that may in turn require policy responses on the part of Kenyan authorities, the study’s lead author suggests.
About 15 per cent of 1,400 Kenyans surveyed said they had been forced to move because of drought.
"There are a lot of respondents who report these experiences," Prof Linke said.
"It’s not a fringe one or two percent of the population.
We’re talking about much larger shares of the population that we don’t always understand in the States, sitting here behind our desks."
"That’s a fair response."
"Understanding the problem is always the first step in finding a solution."

Others, including the Yampa River and the headwaters of the Colorado itself, did not break records but saw snowpack shrink to 70 percent or less of average.
A big reason is that Lake Powell has been used to keep Lake Mead from sinking to an elevation of 1,075ft, the point at which the federal government must declare a water shortage under a 2007 agreement.
This would cause mandatory water delivery cuts to the Lower Basin states, triggering widespread water rationing.
If the Lower Basin declares a compact call, Kenney says, it would surely be contested by Upper Basin water users.
And Lake Powell is likely to go on shrinking as long as these water releases continue.
Most of this growth will occur on the Front Range, from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, a region served by water imported by tunnels through the Rockies from the state’s West Slope.
Known as the System Conservation Pilot Program, it paid farmers to fallow crops, allowing the saved water to flow downstream to Lake Powell.
But over three years, it saved only about 22,000 acre-feet of water at a cost of $4.6 million.
Today, any water that reaches Lake Powell is fair game to be sent on to Lake Mead and the Lower Basin states.
One is that Colorado River water users need to stop thinking of the watershed as two separate basins.

There was some welcome relief last month when "widespread (and)… significant rainfall" was recorded in parts of New South Wales, the state government said in its seasonal update late Friday.
"We need more significant widespread rainfall in the coming weeks and months for agricultural recovery to commence and farmland to return to a productive state."
Clark warned that if dry conditions continued instead, "we would see an increased intensification of the drought".
In neighbouring Queensland, the government said last week that 57.4% of the state remains drought-affected.
The update came as Major General Stephen Day – appointed to the newly created role of national drought co-ordinator – said his focus was to improve fundraising efforts for farmers.
He told Sydney’s Sydney Telegraph there was a "lack of co-ordination and coherence to all that’s going on".
"That means there are some gaps, that means there are some overlaps, that means there are some inefficiencies," he said ahead of an planned meeting with some of the major charities raising drought funds.
"I think if we can look at this as a team sport, we’ll have a better effect."
While droughts are not uncommon in Australia, the length and severity of the dry conditions have placed enormous strain on farmers in the eastern states.
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GENEVA (Reuters) – A total of 275,000 people have been displaced by drought in western Afghanistan – 52,000 more than the number uprooted by conflict this year – with over two million threatened by the effects of water shortages, the United Nations said.
Reports from the U.N. and aid charities described farmers lacking seeds to sow following crop failures in some areas and livestock dying for the want of anything to eat.
Afghanistan, a country where nearly 20 million people rely on farming, has suffered a 45 per cent fall in agricultural output this year as the drought has bitten, officials at the ministry of agriculture have said.
In a regular update, the U.N. humanitarian office reported that 120,000 people fleeing the drought arrived in Qala-e-Naw city in Badghis province in the week to Sept. 9.
It estimated 2.2 million Afghans would be affected by the drought this year.
In Qala-e-Naw, where there are an estimated 66,500 drought-displaced people, supplies and humanitarian aid are already insufficient to meet the needs of newly arrived families.
The U.N. cited an assessment by aid charity World Vision International that 99 percent of people in Badghis said their food situation was worse or a lot worse than a year ago.
“The assessment also indicates that most farmers lost last season’s harvest and nearly all of them lack seeds for new planting season,” the U.N. report said, noting reports that about 40 per cent of livestock has been lost in Badghis due to a lack of pasture and fodder.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), a U.S. funded food security monitoring service, said in a report on Aug. 31 that the number of Afghans in a food “crisis” was atypically high.
In Badghis and Faryab provinces, emergency outcomes are expected to emerge in January, FEWS NET said.

SYDNEY, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) — A severe and ongoing drought means crop production in Australia’s eastern states will be short millions of tonnes compared to the previous year, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARES) on Tuesday.
For the states most acutely impacted by the drought, New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland, crop production is expected to be 46 and 38 percent lower respectively on last year’s figures.
This year’s forecast 3.89 million tonne winter crop in NSW, which includes wheat, barley, canola and oats, is barely a quarter of the 14.78 million tonne crop produced by the state in 2010-11.
However, on the other side of the country in the state of Western Australia (WA), crop production is set to rise 12 percent due to favourable growing conditions.
"The very poor conditions in most cropping regions in NSW and Queensland have been partly offset by forecast above-average yields in WA, following favourable rainfall in late autumn and winter," ABARES Executive Director Steve Hatfield-Dodds said.
Overall the national crop production will fall by 12 percent from last year to 33.2 million tonnes.
While much of the grain grown in Australia is exported to countries like China, this year some of the product from WA’s bumper crop will go to subsidising the domestic market in the East.