THARPARKAR: The current condition of drought in Tharparkar district emerged due to insufficient rainfall, forcing Thari people to migrate. The district government has yet to recommend to the PDMA that the district be declared calamity-hit, while people are being forced to sell off their animals quickly because of cash needs, fodder shortages, and livestock disease and deaths.
Tharparkar received less than normal rainfall during the current monsoon season, which has worsened the situation and compelled people to leave their homes in search of food, water and fodder for themselves and their livestock. According to the 2006 livestock census, there are around 6.925 million cattle in Sindh, and nearly 60 percent of them are in Tharparkar district alone. Sindh has faced shortages and price hikes of meat and milk whenever Tharparkar has been hit by drought.
In normal years, 10 to 15 percent of the population migrates to the canal-irrigated areas outside Tharparkar for sugarcane harvesting and cotton picking. However, migration after September invariably happens only in drought conditions.
Ramesh Suthar, president of the Union Council Disaster Management Committee (UDMC) of Diplo, said: “Diplo taluka is the worst-affected taluka of Tharparkar district. People have started migrating with their livestock in search of food and fodder.” He said livestock contributed fully or partially to the economy of every household among the district’s roughly 1.3 million people, and that a large number of animals died during such arduous journeys.
Local activist Ismail Samejo told The Lahore Times that, “People had bought seed at high interest, and all the crops have now dried up because the second monsoon rain failed.” Samejo, who was trained under a USAID-funded disaster risk reduction (DRR) project, added: “There is nothing left for the livestock.” He urged the authorities concerned to carry out an assessment and recommend that Tharparkar be declared calamity-hit.
Gulab Rai, a DRR expert, said: “Drought is a recurrent phenomenon in the Tharparkar desert, and its inhabitants have survived droughts in the past using indigenous strategies they developed over the years. But this time the blow is too severe. It has exhausted their traditional coping mechanisms, such as selling livestock and working in neighbouring areas in exchange for food.
“The failure of this system has led them to sell their assets at throwaway prices to ensure two meals a day for their families. Their suffering increased further when they had to take their children out of school to support the family financially. Many children have dropped out of school and are working at hotels and carpet looms, and there is little chance of them returning to school. Meanwhile, livestock, one of the most important victims of drought, remains beyond the reach of any support under the current state of affairs,” Rai added.
The situation in the Thar region is alarming and requires the government to take remedial measures immediately. Special funds should also be allocated in the government’s annual budgets, and the district administration must be authorised to use them in disaster-like situations.