Pune: The district administration will submit a ground report about the drought status in Pune district and will also plan various steps to overcome the effects of drought in drought-prone areas. Earlier, the State government had declared 10 talukas of the district as drought-prone. Now, three talukas have been removed from the category.
The areas earlier listed included Ambegaon, Baramati, Bhor, Daund, Haveli, Indapur, Mulshi, Purandar, Shirur and Velha. Mulshi, Bhor and Haveli were removed from the list. The State government on Wednesday declared ‘severe drought’ in 112 talukas. Besides, 39 talukas were placed under ‘medium drought’ category, taking the total tally to 151.
The districts along with number of talukas declared as severe drought-hit include Sangli (5), Solapur (9), Satara (1), Dhule (2), Palghar (3), Jalgaon (13), Nandurbar (3), Nashik (4), Ahmednagar (11), Aurangabad (9), Beed (11), Jalna (7), Nanded (2), Osmanabad (7), Parbhani (6), Hingoli (2), Amravati (1), Buldhana (7), Yavatmal (6), Nagpur (2) and Chandrapur (1). Those under medium drought category are Pune (7), Satara (2), Dhule (1), Nashik (4), Nanded (1), Hingoli (1), Amravati (4), Buldhana (1), Washim (1), Yavatmal (3), Akola (5), Nandurbar (1), Latur (1), Chandrapur (4), Nagpur (1) and Wardha (2).
Speaking on the issue, District Collector Naval Kishore Ram said that while the western part of Pune has enough water and dams, there is shortage of water in the eastern part. “Seven talukas are drought-prone and we have been asked to submit a ground report of the situation to the government. We are in the process of planning drought mitigation steps including deployment of water tankers and other relief measures as the need arises,” added Ram.
The removal of the three talukas Mulshi, Bhor and Haveli from the drought prone areas list has led to disappointment in local leaders of Bhor and other talukas. Following the drought announcement, officials of the water resources department, irrigation department and administrative department are trying to find solutions to issues like employment for villagers, electricity and education fee waiver, irrigation facilities for farmers and other solutions to provide water to people.
As per the water scarcity report of Groundwater Survey and Development Agency (GSDA), nearly 71 per cent of the state showed a drop of more than a metre in the groundwater level in September, compared to a five-year average. As per GSDA data in Pune district, in 577 villages, groundwater has depleted by more than a metre and in 152 villages, the ground water has depleted by more than threee metres compared to a five-year average.
Source GSDA report on water scarcity