APPEALS

Drought Relief Appeal for Mundgod Tibetan Settlement

Mundgod Tibetan settlement located in Karnataka State of India which is home to more than 13,000 Tibetan refugees who depend for their livelihood mainly on rainfed farming, has been devastated this year by prolonged drought destroying all their crops of paddy, cotton, maize and pulses on 2300 acres of farmland.

Mundgod area receives an annual rainfall of 1250 mm on average, which was just sufficient to sustain a moderate harvest, but this year, the annual rainfall has been less than 800 mm. During critical growth period from July - August, a minimum of 250 mm of rainfall with at least 50 mm of standing water in the cultivated field is required. However, this year, the average rainfall in July to August was only 166 mm thereby resulting in acute shortage of water requirement for the crops. Thus all the crops dried up before the harvest and left the settlement completely drought affected. The State Government of Karnataka declared the whole area of Mundgod as drought affected.

The Settlement Officer and the respective village leaders have conducted a thorough crop loss assessment by visiting all the cultivated fields and found that an estimated crop worth of Rs.14,387,086.54 has been lost due to the drought as given below:

1. Net loss on Paddy crop from 2100 acres is Rs 13,504,174.90
2. Net loss on Cotton crop from 90.4 acres is Rs 678,897.59
3. Net loss on Maize crop from 65.5 acres is Rs 199,760.85
4. Net loss on Pulse crop from 3.9 acres is Rs 4,253.20

Total Loss due to drought comes to Rs 14,387,086.54.

The farmers have not only lost their crops but the drought has left most of them debt ridden as they have taken loans from local banks and settlement Co-operative Society for the purchase of farm inputs. This is a major problem faced by all farmers of this settlement.

On account of this unprecedented drought, the Central Tibetan Relief Committee would like to appeal to all the friends and well wishers to make generous contribution for providing relief aids to the drought affected families of Mundgod Tibetan Settlement. For donations and further information, kindly contact the following:

Secretary
Central Tibetan Relief Committee
Gangchen Kyishong
Dharamsala - 176215
District Kangra
H.P, India
Tel: 91-1892-22214/22412
Fax: 91-1892-25065
nangsi@gov.tibet.net
www.tibet.net/home/eng/ctrc