Farmers use guns to guard water in drought-hit Bihar

Bihar has declared 26 of the 38 districts drought-hit and the water crisis in the state in now turning dangerous with farmer guarding their water sources with guns.

After scanty rainfall in many districts, the battle for water is being fought with guns.

"We are farmers. It has not rained properly this year. There is little water in the canals that we use. So we have to protect the water. We carry our agricultural equipments and guns together. When we are in the fields we use our agricultural equipments and when the need for the guns arises, then we use the guns," says Bal Bhushan Sharma, a farmer in Aurangabad which is one of the worst-hit districts.

Sharma is voice of desperation and of little hope. They are no robbers or henchmen but farmers.

With no rains and most canals drying up, water is more precious than gold and the farmers have now chosen to risk their lives to guard it.

They are ready to kill and get killed to protect their water.

"There is very little water. The villagers from neighbouring areas are on the lookout to divert the water in the canals towards their fields. We are trying to stop them. We don't want a fight but if some one diverts the canal water then how will we irrigate our fields," says another farmer Narendra Singh.

Farmers with guns in their hands are just a reflection of how bad the scene is at the ground. For them it's a question of their survival as the scarce rainfall has made the water flowing out of the canal the most precious commodity for them.

Canals irrigate most of central Bihar and the prolonged dry spell means no water for cultivation.

Out of 79.46 lakh hectares of land under cultivation, only 45.67 lakh hectares are irrigated.

"Just 20 per cent of canal system is functioning and the remaining 80 per cent are not functioning. The report of the Planning Commission has also pointed this," claims agricultural and social scientist Dr Ssachidanand Sinha.

With 39 per cent shortfall of rain, only 40 per cent canals have water and their water level is much below the normal.

Life has changed and farmers have little hope of revival. Celebrations have been postponed

More than half of Nand Kishore's 10 acres of land is barren and he struggles to feed his family of 12, to arrange food for cattle.

Even his sister's wedding will now have to wait for another year.

"If we don't have money then how will we survive? We are not able to sleep and keep on think about how we will get our next meal," says Nand Kishore's mother Sushila Devi.

Drought resulting in food crisis has not only affected the kitchens but has upset the entire life of millions of farmers who even otherwise live on a threshold.

Managing one full year without a penny being generated out of farming is a situation they have never faced before.

Foodgrains are cultivated in over 90 per cent of the fertile land in Bihar and little or no rain only adds to the farmers' woes, perhaps leaving the only option of fighting their destiny with guns.

But while farmers fight each other with guns, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad has fired the latest salvo blaming the drought on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, for eating during the recent solar eclipse, an act considered an omen by some.

"Bihar Chief Minister, my younger brother Nitish, was eating bisuits in front of everyone during a solar eclipse. He thinks he can take on the Sun God," says Lalu.

An angry Nitish has called Lalu's superstitions and indulging in petty politics.

"He (Lalu) is desperate enough to use superstition to come into power again," says Nitish.link