A 10-member inter-ministerial central team will study drought conditions and crop losses across 11 districts of Karnataka from October 3 to 6, after an estimated 14.43 lakh hectares of farmland were reported affected in the districts covered by the assessment.
The team has been constituted by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. Ajit Kumar Sahu, Joint Secretary in the Agriculture Department, will lead the assessment, according to a report by Prajavani.
The central team is scheduled to arrive in Karnataka on October 3 and hold an initial meeting with Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh and senior officials of the Revenue Department’s Disaster Management division. It will then split into three groups for field visits across the affected districts.
The first group, led by Sahu, will visit Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Davanagere and Vijayanagara. Crop damage in these four districts has been estimated at 5.52 lakh hectares.
A second group, headed by Dr Sudham Bagh, will assess Hassan, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar and Mandya, where the estimated crop damage covers 4.41 lakh hectares. This team will also inspect the water level at the Krishnaraja Sagar reservoir, linking the drought assessment to the condition of a major water-storage asset serving the region.
The third group, led by Dr Man Singh, will visit Yadgir, Raichur, Bagalkot and Koppal. The four districts together account for an estimated 4.50 lakh hectares of crop damage.
The three district groupings cover different parts of Karnataka’s agricultural geography, from the southern districts around the KRS reservoir to the northern and Hyderabad-Karnataka regions. The assessment will therefore examine both the reported scale of crop damage and local water conditions across districts with different farming patterns and levels of water dependence.
The total estimated crop-loss area cited in the report is based on assessments across the 11 districts. The field visits are expected to provide the central government with district-level information before it considers the state’s drought-related requirements. The report does not specify the amount of assistance sought by Karnataka or the timeline for any subsequent financial decision.
The visit also places state-level damage estimates within the inter-governmental process used for disaster assessment. Karnataka officials will first brief the visiting team in Bengaluru, after which the central representatives will conduct inspections in the districts and submit their findings to the Union government.
The next formal milestone is the central team’s arrival on October 3, followed by the preliminary meeting with state officials and the four-day field assessment. Its report to the central government will determine the next stage of consideration of Karnataka’s drought situation.
