Waiting for the rains: Water and livelihoods in Kutch during a delayed monsoon

Water has always dictated the rhythm of life at the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. Long before climate change entered public discourse, communities learnt to live with uncertainty, waiting each year for the monsoon to replenish wells, recharge traditional water harvesting systems, revive grasslands and sustain farming and pastoral livelihoods.

Centuries ago, the poet and philosopher Abdul Rahim Khan i Khana captured this enduring relationship between water, people and nature in a couplet that remains remarkably relevant today:

"Rahiman paani rakhiye; paani bin sab soon. Paani gaye na ubere moti maanas chun."

"Preserve water, for without it everything is void. When water is lost, three things lose their essence forever: the pearl's lustre, the human's dignity, and the flour's utility."

Rahim's words remind us that water is far more than a resource. It is the foundation of livelihoods, ecosystems and human wellbeing. Few places illustrate this more clearly than Kutch, where life has always depended on an erratic monsoon. The region's distinctive geography and arid climate have shaped communities that have adapted to uncertainty for generations. Yet as rainfall becomes increasingly unpredictable, that uncertainty is deepening.

This year, a delayed monsoon is exposing just how interconnected Kutch's water systems are. As rains fail to arrive on time, reservoirs remain unreplenished, grazing lands stay parched, groundwater recharge slows and seasonal farming calendars begin to unravel. The impacts extend well beyond water scarcity, affecting agriculture, livestock, biodiversity and local economies across one of India's most water-stressed landscapes.

When resilience depends on rain

Over the past few years, Kutch experienced an unusually generous spell of rainfall. The period of abundance encouraged state agencies and communities to expand plantation drives, restore traditional water harvesting structures, revive old recharge systems and develop new water sources. For a time, these efforts appeared to strengthen the region's resilience, helping communities and their large livestock populations withstand periods of water stress.

The current season, however, has revealed the limits of infrastructure when seasonal weather patterns shift. A severely delayed monsoon is disrupting both farming and pastoral livelihoods, demonstrating that even well-maintained water infrastructure cannot compensate for the prolonged absence of rainfall.

In Kutch, where livestock rearing remains a traditional occupation and much of agriculture depends entirely on rain, every delayed week of the monsoon narrows the options available to communities. The consequences are now unfolding across farms, grazing lands and water bodies throughout the district.

When every week without rain matters

Agriculture in Kutch follows a narrow seasonal calendar that depends almost entirely on the timely arrival of the monsoon. Every stage, from sowing to harvesting, is linked to rainfall. When the rains are delayed, farmers have only a limited window to adapt before crop choices and yields begin to decline.

According to Praveen Muchhadiya, a representative of the grassroots agricultural organisation Satvik, that window is rapidly closing. "Early sowing rainfed crops such as bajra (pearl millet), moong (green gram), and both the brown and white varieties of til (sesame) are on the brink of total failure for the season if the monsoon fails to arrive by the end of July," Muchhadiya warns.

Some crops offer greater flexibility. Castor and sorghum can still be sown into early August and tolerate delayed rainfall better than food crops. However, they cannot compensate for the economic losses associated with failed sowing of pearl millet, green gram and sesame, which remain important sources of food and income.

The delay is also affecting farmers who depend on groundwater irrigation. Many cultivate cotton and groundnut, crops that require reliable groundwater supplies. Without adequate monsoon recharge, groundwater levels decline, reducing both the quantity and quality of production later in the season.

The prolonged dry spell has brought one unexpected advantage. It extended the harvesting and marketing period for Kutch's indigenous dates and mangoes, allowing growers more time to sell premium produce at favourable prices. Yet this temporary benefit is being overshadowed by wider challenges affecting agriculture and livestock across the region.

As water disappears, the pressure shifts to livestock

The delayed monsoon affects more than crops. Across Kutch, pastoral communities depend on seasonal rainfall to replenish village ponds, regenerate grazing lands and provide drinking water for livestock. When these water sources fail, the consequences are immediate. For the Maldhari community, whose livelihoods revolve around animal husbandry, shrinking water availability has quickly become a fodder crisis.

Aamadbhai Tuga, a member of the Bhuj Cattle Rearers Association, says the cost of feeding livestock has risen sharply within weeks. "We are forced to purchase dry fodder from retail merchants at an exorbitant rate of ₹12 per kilogram," Tuga states. "In ordinary times, buying in wholesale would cost us ₹6 per kilogram. Today, wholesale stocks have completely dried up, leaving us entirely at the mercy of retailers."

At the same time, many lakes have either dried completely or shrunk into shallow pools of saline water. Fresh drinking water for livestock has become increasingly scarce. Animals are drinking less simply to survive, while the absence of green fodder after an extended summer is affecting their health.

For many Maldhari families, declining milk production has become the most visible sign of a much larger water crisis. As livestock weaken, household incomes also begin to fall, linking rainfall directly with rural livelihoods.

Banni's grasslands wait for the rains

The effects of the delayed monsoon are perhaps most visible in the Banni grasslands, one of Asia's largest tropical grassland ecosystems and the foundation of Kutch's pastoral economy. These grasslands depend on seasonal rainfall to regenerate every year. Without timely rain, grazing areas remain barren, leaving pastoralists with few alternatives. "There is absolutely no grass left standing in Banni right now," says Ishabhai Mutwa of the Banni Breeders Association.

In previous years, shortages in Kutch were often managed by transporting fodder from the wetter districts of southern Gujarat, including Surat, Valsad and Vapi. This year, that option has become unavailable because those regions are themselves dealing with severe flooding. As natural grazing disappears, attention has turned to government-managed reserves of harvested Banni grass.

"The Forest Department is sitting on massive reserves of harvested Banni grass. By policy, this grass cannot be preserved for more than three years because it naturally degrades. Usually, the department liquidates this stock by distributing it to Panjarapoles (charitable animal sanctuaries) at highly subsidised rates before it spoils. They must release it to livestock keepers immediately to save our animals. Because the state has not formally declared a drought yet, the administration is holding back the reserves. This bureaucratic rigidity is fundamentally unfair," says Mutwa.

The association has appealed to the district collector to convene an emergency meeting between the revenue and forest departments to facilitate the release of stored grass before conditions worsen.

Meanwhile, as lakes within the interior forest areas continue to dry up, thousands of livestock keepers are moving back towards villages where managed water sources remain available. The concentration of people and livestock around these limited supplies is increasing pressure on local resources and creating new points of competition for water.

Ecological fractures and ecosystem services

Beyond the immediate economic distress, the delay is fracturing the underlying ecosystem. Pankaj Joshi, a local ecologist, explains that the Banni grassland hosts over 50 distinct indigenous species of grass, each adapted to specific moisture regimes. A prolonged delay in rainfall permanently alters the delicate floral composition of the grassland, giving invasive or less nutritious species an opening to take over.

Furthermore, livestock are fundamentally altering their traditional grazing routes to compensate for the bare pastures. This erratic movement is pushing massive domestic herds deep into protected, sensitive natural zones, overexploiting habitats that lack the carrying capacity to support both wild herbivores and domestic cattle.

"This creates severe competitive pressure on the native wildlife species bound to those specific habitats. Ultimately, we are looking at a cascading degradation of vital ecosystem services, from soil stabilisation to biodiversity maintenance, that will take years to recover," says Pankaj Joshi. 

The crisis in Kutch is a textbook reminder of Rahim's warning: when the 'paani' goes, the lustre of the land, the dignity of its people, and the survival of its ecology hang perilously in the balance. Immediate, proactive administrative intervention, rather than reactive drought declarations are what stand between Kutch and an ecological catastrophe.