Andhra Pradesh declares 87 additional mandals affected by the drought
87 mandals in six districts of the state have been classified as being impacted by the drought due to a lack of rainfall and other factors, such as the inability to provide livestock with food or drink and the decline in groundwater levels during the Northeast Monsoon of 2023–2024 (Rabi).
This is on top of the 103 mandals that were identified as being affected by the drought in November of last year. The Rayalaseema area is home to the majority of these mandals.
Ajay Jain, the Revenue Department’s Special Chief Secretary (disaster management), issued directives designating 24 mandals as moderately afflicted by the drought and 63 mandals as severely affected. The reports that the corresponding district collectors filed indicated that these mandals were affected by the drought.
The majority of the 87 mandals—31—are found in Prakasam, followed by Kurnool (18), Anantapur (14), Nandyal (13), Nellore (10), and Sri Sathya Sai district (18).
Ajay Jain gave the district collectors instructions to inform the drought-stricken mandals so that farmers may apply for loans and begin relief efforts. Officials said that part of the assistance efforts include extending the workdays under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and providing basic facilities for those hired under the employment program.~
Project director B Amarnath Reddy of the Kurnool District Water Management Agency (DWMA) said that the labor budget has been raised due to the district’s increasing number of drought-affected mandals. Because they are able to use the most amount of working days, “NREGA laborers stand to benefit,” he said.
Additionally, he expressed his opinion that the increased NREGA funding may lead to a decrease in the annual migration of families seeking job in neighboring districts like Guntur and to places like Hyderabad, Telangana, and Bengaluru, Karnataka.
It should be mentioned that almost every mandal in the Adoni division experiences droughts, and migration has turned into a persistent problem in these areas of the district.
With 28 mandals, Anantapur had the most of the drought-affected districts announced in November 2023. Kurnool had 24, Sri Sathya Sai had 21, Annamayya had 18, Nandyal had 6, and Chittoor district had 4.
