Shimla, August 3
The Himachal Government today declared all 12 districts of the state as drought-affected and released Rs 25 crore from the calamity relief fund to carry out immediate relief measures.

Dr Rajan Sushant, Revenue Minister, said the decision was taken on the basis of the deficiency in rainfall since June 1 to date and the damage caused to the kharif crops by the protracted dry spell. He said as per the report of the Agriculture Department, standing crops had suffered more than 50 per cent damage and if there was no rain over the next few days it could go up to 75 per cent. The maize, main crop of the hills, had suffered more than 90 per cent damage. There was no scope for the revival of the crop, though delayed rains, even now, could enable the farmers to grow alternative crops like moong, mash and toria in certain areas.

He said the situation in case of paddy, which was grown over a much smaller area than maize, was no better. A large area remained unsown as paddy could not be transplanted.

He said the total loss on account of damage to agricultural crops so far had been estimated at Rs 366 crore but it was likely to go up. The fruit crop had also been hit. The size of apple, the main crop, had been affected and there had been heavy premature droppings of fruit. In certain cases even fully grown plants had started drying in orchards.

The severity of drought could be gauged from the fact that in some parts of Chamba the evergreen pine trees had dried, he said.

The government had ordered a special “girdawari” (crop survey) to assess the loss on the basis of which a memorandum would be prepared to seek assistance from the Centre to combat the drought, he said.

He said the state had urged the Centre to provide 10,000 tonnes of damaged foodgrains for supplying to affected farmers as cattle feed. Besides, it had also sought 25,000 tonnes of foodgrains on BPL rates for supplying through the public distribution system. Another 9,000 tonnes of foodgrains had been demanded under the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana for creating employment opportunities in the affected areas.