Migration

Droughts are one of the most feared natural calamities impacting agriculture and food production as well as the morale of millions of farmers in India. Recent studies show that the frequency of droughts is increasing. While droughts are known to cause severe rural distress, little is known on how gender influences the experiences of men and women in coping with droughts.

Amur falcons are among the strongest fliers in the avian world. Since the last 25 years, they have been migrating to the Northeast especially Nagaland from Siberia en route to their final destination—Somalia, Kenya and South Africa. 

In 2013, the researchers estimated that between 1,20,000 and 1,40,000 Amur falcons were being trapped and killed for human consumption in the Nagaland and the Wokha districts every year.

Droughts are one of the most feared natural calamities in India impacting food production, the economy as well as the morale of millions of farmers in a country where

Tired from the Baidyanath dhamyatra (pilgrimage) in the nearby town of Deoghar, Nunlal Kamath is stealing a quick nap on a charpoy outside his house. His house is right on the western bank of Kosi, north Bihar’s river of sorrow, in a particularly flood-prone area where there are no high grounds or flood platforms nearby.  

Much of the district floods every year during the monsoon season. In August 2017, Kamath’s village at Basipatti in Madhepur block of Madhubani district saw the worst flooding after the 2007 deluge.

Lewari, a village located around 17 km from Alwar in Rajasthan, is the site of a water conflict these days. “The production of Jayanti jaljeera, haazme ka lalantop drink (a digestive drink) has left our village parched,” says Nanak Singh, a resident. Singh is referring to the excessive quantity of water being used for manufacturing a digestive drink by a factory located in his village. The indiscriminate use of a lake bed in the village for industrial use has led to groundwater scarcity during peak summer months.

Delhi’s Jor Bagh metro station is the site of an ongoing photographic exhibition with thought-provoking images and narratives exploring escalating water crises Indian and Nepal Himalayas face. Titled “Pani, Pahar: Waters of the Himalayas”, the exhibition combines contemporary work by photojournalist Toby Smith with academic research led by Dr Bhaskar Vira and Dr Eszter Kovacs at Cambridge University’s department of geography, in association with collaborators in India and Nepal.

Gopal Nishad, a fisherman in his early 40s, is frustrated that there is hardly any fish left in the Mahanadi’s basin at Pitaibandh due to the lack of water in the basin. This basin is located near Rajim-Nawapara in Chhattisgarh, the proposed site for the fourth anicut on the Mahanadi. He reminisces the good old days when he, along with his brother, used to catch plenty of fish from the Mahanadi. 

Scanty rainfall, depleting groundwater levels, barren farmlands and mass migration of farmers to cities for better livelihood--this is the reality of most of rural India today. Many parts of India are witnessing this growing trend of farmers leaving their lands in search of jobs in cities. Andhra Pradesh is no different with several districts of the state seeing a rising rate in outmigration of farmers.

Kaudikasa is a small village with a population of just 350 people in the Ambagad Chowki block of the Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh. Despite its small size, Kaudikasa village has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Severe health problems have been reported from the village, thanks to acute arsenic contamination in its groundwater. In fact, of the 22 villages affected by arsenic contamination in Ambagad Chowki block, Kaudikasa village is said to be the worst affected.

Every year, thousands of villages in Maharashtra get affected by droughts. Experts say that the reasons for recurrent droughts include a lack of policy framework, technical knowledge and community participation as well as poor implementation of government programmes.