Jharkhand drought-proofing infrastructure lies abandoned, farms suffer

Decades of drought-proofing infrastructure in Jharkhand's Palamu district has failed, leaving farmers dependent on rain, Mongabay-India reports. Lift irrigation systems, canals, and ponds built over the last 50 years now lie broken, abandoned, or silted. Koushal Kishore Vishvakarma, a farmer in Darudih village, said a lift irrigation system that once watered upland fields ran for only five years before a pipe was damaged and never repaired. He now grows crops only in the rainy season, and barely manages any paddy.

Jharkhand has declared drought ten times in the past 25 years, with Palamu hit hardest each time. Consecutive droughts in 2023 and 2024 forced mass migration from villages. This year's extreme heat and a delayed monsoon add to worries. The India Meteorological Department warns that ongoing El Nino conditions may strengthen during the southwest monsoon, threatening another failed season. Soil Conservation Officer Shyam Bind admitted that lift irrigation schemes were a total failure on the maintenance side and that no audit of ponds has been done in ten years.