A parched landscape, a tragedy unfolds in Marathwada

Stories about the drought in Marathwada have been appearing in the media off and on. Kavitha Iyer’s ‘Landscapes of Loss: The Story of an Indian Drought’, however, is the first in-depth reportage on the calamity that has been threatening lives and livelihoods in the region. Unprecedented depletion in groundwater levels, coupled with long dry spells, unabated drawing of water from reservoirs… while all this has been going wrong, commercial greed has increased the problem manifold.

A parallel “thirst economy”, as agricultural expert P Sainath calls it in the preface, has sprung up. While farming is not possible without water tankers needed to keep the fruit trees blooming in the scorching summer, with public taps going dry, common people are forced to buy water too. These rates are way higher than what the alcohol industry in the region pays. Iyer highlights how the Marathwada drought is deeply connected with inequality. She points out how water-intensive industries such as beer and paper manufacturing fall in special economic zones while thousands migrate to cities to escape water scarcity every year.

Tragedy unfolds in chapter after chapter. Iyer points at government failure, the groundwater and irrigation infrastructure backlog in Marathwada, the vicious cycle of loss and desperate measures that lead to hundreds of farmer suicides each year, the women and children left behind, the drought mitigation works and their assessment.

Iyer says her broken Marathi has had locals opening their hearts to her and 20 years of reporting from rural Maharashtra have helped her understand why everybody loves a good drought. — TNS