In the first week of April, when children across Maharashtra were busy studying for their school final exams, children from drought affected areas were helping their parents get water and fodder for the cattle at home. “During the drought of the previous year, we had sent the cattle to my uncle’s village. This time, I will be taking care of them at the cattle camp,” said Samrat Katkar from Bhalavadi village of Satara district. Katkar wants to become a soldier or a policeman when he grows up—following in the footsteps of a large number of villagers who send one family member to purse either career in drought prone villages. Bhalavadi is one of the thousands of villages across Maharashtra where rains have failed both kharif and rabi crops leaving no fodder or water for the cattle to survive. The present drought is the toughest ever due to severe water shortage. Once every 8 to 10 days, tankers supply drinking water to the parched villages in Maharashtra. There are 4,300 tankers deployed for the task. Tankerwada “Both kharif and rabi crops failed this year. There is not only water but also food shortage. When villagers start returning in the next fortnight as sugar mills close operations, the water we are getting by tankers will just not be enough for everyone,” says Sandip Pawar, a school teacher in Pimpalvandi village of Beed district. This district is one of those from where people migrate every year to work as sugarcane harvesting labour. Vishnu Jangam (name changed) from Sangola taluka of Solapur district is one of the rare farmers from this perpetually drought affected area, who is blessed with good water supply to his well. Jangam is still holding jowar he had grown in the Kharif season of 2018. “I will sell it after June when people from the distilleries that make liquor from grain come to our village offering a much higher rate than the market rate,” he says. Liquor is made from grains in Marathwada during the monsoon months and from sugarcane during winters and summers as the water contained in the cane can be used to run the mills. Locally, the region is called Tankerwada as people and animal survive on tanker water. But Tankerwada is also Liquorwada as it sends tankers full of liquor to the rest of the country. Global beer and liquor brands such as Carlsberg, United Breweries, Foster India and many other are located in Aurangabad district of Marathwada. SLAUGHTER HOUSES The severe drought has not just affected the crops, it has also hurt cattle farming and its associated economy. Khanderao Padvalkar, secretary of Sangola market committee has not seen such a drastic fall in cattle prices in his service in 25 years. “Cattle prices have slumped by 50% during the past six months and will continue to slide as there are no buyers. This has never happened before. During earlier droughts, farmers could keep their cattle even during droughts at the cattle camps. However, this year, not a single cattle camp has started in Sangola forcing farmers to sell their cattle,” said Padvalkar. The reluctance to set up cattle camps could in part be because of the incumbent state government’s finger pointing to the largescale corruption in fodder camps set up by the previous Congress NCP government in Maharashtra and on its part being extra careful, delaying measures to provide relief to farmers. The BJP Shiv Sena had charged the previous regime with inflating the number of cattle present at the camps, showing cattle in the name of the people who do not exist, not providing enough fodder from the money given by the government to the NGOs or people who run the camps. “Though we had received approval to start the fodder camps, we were waiting as the fodder camp started by an NGO was keeping the situation under control,” said an official from the collectorate at Satara. The officer hinted farmers could have resorted to severe protests had the NGO not started the cattle camp. While there is a ban on slaughter of cattle, many say it exists only on paper. Farmers speaking in hushed voices allege a large number of cattle have been sold at dirt cheap prices and land up at slaughter houses as cattle camps haven’t been started yet in many areas or were started too late. How cattle help farmers While the state government was procrastinating on relief measures and wondering how to reduce the scope for corruption, the first cattle camp in the state was started by NGO Mandeshi Foundation. Chetana Sinha, who runs the allwomen Mandeshi Bank in Mhaswad in Satara district said that farmers had started approaching the foundation from October last requesting it to start a cattle camp. Between April 2012 and October 2014, the foundation had run the biggest ever cattle camp of India sheltering 14,000 cattle for 1.5 years. “We did not want to start a cattle camp any more as we did not want to take financial help from the government. But when farmers started talking about selling their cattle, we changed our minds,” said Sinha. Once farmers sell cattle, they cannot buy it for the next 5/6 years. “Also, cattle stops the complete migration of families to urban areas. At least some members stay back to look after the cattle,” she observes pointing towards the rapid increase in Mumbai’s slum population after the drought of 1972. Sinha observed that as the price of foodgrains were at non-remunerative levels, farmers from rainfed areas have increasingly resorted to cattle rearing. “There is so much uncertainty about income from crops like onions, maize, jowar grown in rainfed areas. Even the smallest of the farmers from Maharashtra are inclined to give as much education to their children as possible. For this and other living expenses, milk production gives consistent income, especially due to growth of private dairies. As such, farmers have replaced the indigenous cattle breeds with more productive hybrid cattle, which also need more fodder to eat,” she said. Hit by drought, subdued commodity prices and fall in disbursal of agricultural credit, a large number of farmers are likely to land in the clutches of moneylenders.