SHIMLA, Jan 17 — All 12 districts in Himachal Pradesh have been declared drought-hit and a loss of about Rs 300 crore to the current rabi crop and fruits has been assessed by the authorities.

The state government has rushed the damage report to the Centre and sought an immediate relief of Rs 80 crore to meet the coming shortage of drinking water and fodder due to the dry spell.

Highly placed sources told this correspondent that of the total number of 16,916 villages in the state as many as 15,571 have been affected by the worst ever drought. Bilaspur and Solan districts were the worst hit as not a single drop of rain was received there. The extent of shortfall in the rain ranged between 43 per cent and 100 per cent in various parts of the state during the sowing season from October to December last.

Reports say that farmers were forced to leave over 21 per cent agricultural area unsown because of the dry spell. The seeds did not germinate in a large area because of the drought.

The loss to the rabi crop is estimated to the tune of Rs 145 crore and Rs 155 crore to horticulture.

The report is learnt to have anticipated that insufficient snow and lesser cold to meet the chilling requirements of apple and temperate fruit and severe drought for the past five months is likely to affect the apple crop to the extent of 60 per cent next season.

The state government has sought a grant of Rs 7.20 crore from the Centre for meeting the cost of carrying drinking water in tankers and mules as most of the water sources have either dried or there will be a shortage of water in the coming months. A sum of Rs 4 crore has been sought for tapping traditional water sources. A total grant of about Rs 24 crore has been sought for the Irrigation and Public Health Department for meeting the requirements of water.

Sources said that against the normal rainfall of 97 mm and 79 mm in Solan and Bilaspur, respectively, during the rabi season, these areas did not receive even a single drop of rain, registering a shortfall of 100 per cent.

The report said all 2,337 villages of Solan and 911 of Bilaspur district were hit by the drought of the 3,974 villages in Kangra district, 3,674 were badly hit by the drought of the 2,789 villages in Mandi, 2,589 were in the grip of drought and 906 of the 965 villages in Sirmaur were reeling under drought.

The drought has hit 1988 of the 2188 villages of Shimla, 105 of the 169 of Kulu, 1507 of the 1619 of Hamirpur, 503 of the 557 in Una, 848 of the 1095 in Chamba, 63 of the 77 in Kinnaur and 140 of the 235 villages of Lahaul-Spiti districts.