Crops on 39 lakh hectares lost, says State govt

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The State government on Thursday disclosed that crops on 39,74,741 hectares of land had been destroyed in Karnataka’s 195 taluks where drought had been declared.

According to the State government’s data, Maize was the worst hit with the crop planted on 11,84,762.04 hectares withering away. This was quickly followed by Tur at the second position.

The crop planted on 7,16,994.98 hectares was lost. Cotton planted on 4,04,421.26 hectares of land was lost. Sugarcane planted on 2,72,385.13 hectares also withered away.

It is to be noted that both cane and cotton are cash crops. As much as 2,70,966.28 hectares of groundnut was also destroyed. Soyabean on 2,20,400 hectares also withered away.

Paddy, which requires standing water to be able to grow properly, was lost on 1,33,654.63 hectares of land. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has in the past estimated that the crop loss amounted to more than Rs 30,000 crores.

However, his estimation was based on the figure of crop loss on 42 lakh hectares (as opposed to 39 lakh hectares), which amounts to 52 percent of all crops planted in the entirety of the state.

The CM has also demanded Rs 4,860 crore from the Union government by way of drought relief as per the norms of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).