Mysuru: A central drought assessment team Monday visited drought-hit areas in the district to inspect the drinking water, borewell and livestock fodder situation.The team comprised deputy commissioner of the department of animal husbandry and dairying Sudham Beg, deputy adviser of department of drinking water and sanitation Ashish Pandey, under secretary of department of food and civil supplies Pradeep Kumar and deputy director of Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC) under the union ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare Karan Chaudhary.The team visited Chinnadahudi village in Nanjangud taluk and inspected the drinking water and borewell situation. The team also visited Chikkakaulande village to assess the availability of livestock fodder.Later, the team met at the zilla panchayat auditorium and gathered information from officials on the district’s drought situation. DC Lakshmikanth Reddy told the team that the district was facing a severe drought due to deficient rainfall. Compared to other districts in Karnataka, Mysuru had witnessed a more severe rainfall deficit, with a 59% shortfall, he said.Reddy said the district mainly depended on three reservoirs — KRS, Kabini and Harangi. The live storage in the KRS reservoir was 17.86 TMC this year, compared to 21.83 TMC last year, a deficit of around 4 TMC. Similarly, Kabini reservoir had a live storage of 1.31 TMC this year compared to 8.71 TMC last year, a deficit of around 7 TMC. The available water in the reservoirs was being used only for drinking water purposes and to fill lakes. If the rainfall deficit continued, the district could face a severe drinking water crisis, he said.Joint director of agriculture KH Ravi said drought had damaged around 1,43,308 hectares of crops in the district. As per SDRF norms, the estimated crop loss was around Rs 122.34 crore, he said.Additional deputy commissioner R Aishwarya was present at the meeting.
