Over 270 tehsils spread across 52 districts in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have been officially declared as drought-hit areas this Kharif season, according to a report by Business Standard.
The Chattisgarh government informed Parliament that 96 tehsils across 21 districts have been hit by drought.
Similarly, 133 tehsils across 18 districts in Madhya Pradesh and 41 tehsils across 13 districts in Rajasthan have been declared drought-hit areas.
To provide assistance to drought-hit areas, the three states have sought for a combined assistance of Rs 11,186 crore from the Centre.
Last year, Karnataka Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala and Tamil Nadu had sought assistance of Rs 54,772 crore for drought-hit areas, but only Rs 5,436 crore of the total amount requested was approved by the Centre.
The wheat sown in the ongoing Rabi season in Madhya Pradesh has already been affected due to low levels of water in reservoirs and a deficient monsoon in some parts.
If the drought-hit areas are not provided with additional irrigation facilities, it is bound to impact the wheat already sown in these areas.
Until Thursday, wheat was sown in around 318,000 hectares across the state.
Although IMD had predicted normal rain in August and September, the actual rain was around 4 percent and 12 percent less, respectively, in those months.
The available data shows that 210 of the country’s 630 districts received deficient rainfall this year.