MUMBAI: If the state is faced with a drought-like situation almost all year round, water experts suggest it's time to rise above party politics and conce n trate on core water resource po licies and cropping patterns. "State policies only pay lip service to equitable water distribution . They spell out water distribution for command areas (around dams and waterbodies ) and landholders, but fail to address pockets which fall outside either of these," says Mandar Sathe of voluntary organization Prayas that works on resource management .

In an effort to help the areas reeling under the drought along the Maharashtra and Karnataka border, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan (pictured right), on Monday, sought help from the neighbour state. “I have urged the government of Karnataka to release water from its dam to meet the water crisis in 44 villages along the Maharashtra border,” said Chavan. “The situation in Sangli and Satara districts is of serious concern. The administration has been directed to deploy additional tankers to meet the drinking water requirements there.”

The water table levels in almost all 2,300 dams in Maharashtra, and four main dams in Mumbai, are dipping fast. In fact, the water storage in the state is the lowest in the last five years at 27% — 10,015 million cubic metres (mcm) — as on April 16. It was 42% and 29% on the same day in 2011 and 2010 respectively.

Maharashtra government has agreed to release 2 thousand million cubic metres (TCM) of water from Dudhganga and Warna rivers to the border districts of Karnataka till the monsoon. In return, Karnataka would do necessary arrangement for the release of Almati backwater which can help overcome prevailing scarcity in Jat taluka of Sangli district in western Maharashtra. These decisions were taken at the meeting between the Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and a delegation of Karnataka ministers comprising agriculture minister Umesh Katti and industries minister Murugesh Nirani.

MUMBAI: The state may agree to release an additional 1.96 TMC from its dams to Karnataka, which is facing a drought. However, with a drought-like situation in nine districts here, the state also wants the Karnataka government to act in kind. During a meeting with a delegation of ministers and bureaucrats from Karnataka,CM Prithviraj Chavan and other functionaries sought permission to lift water from a Karnataka canal system for villages in Jath taluka.

Following reports of swine flu cases coming in from Pune and northern parts of the country, city doctors too are witnessing a few suspected cases. While they await reports, city doctors say the H1N1 strain is showing some variations, even as they suspect the fluctuating temperature as the primary cause for the flu’s recurrence.

Stating that the unusually cold weather could be the reason for the cases, infectious disease expert at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital Dr Tanu Singhnal said, “The few suspected swine-flu cases we received are being treated symptomatically.”

Several parts of Maharashtra are reeling under water crisis, even before the onset of summer. The state government on Thursday said 212 villages and 1,203 wadas (hamlets) are facing severe water crisis as water sources have dried. The administration has deployed 230 water tankers to reach out to the villages.

Winds of change are silently sweeping through the tribal landscape of Jawahar and Mokhada, where 102 adivasi farmers have pooled in resources, labour and land in a unique agri-prenuership initiative that is set to shape the future of farming here. Tribal farmers from this poverty-striken belt-140 km from Thane-decided to strengthen their collective capabilities and have cultivated 100 tonnes of turmeric on 60 acres of farmland, which will be processed, packed and sold by their own cooperative farmers' society, recently registered under the cooperatives Act.

Site helps peasants discuss prices and plan strategy. Last month, the turmeric farmers of Maharashtra’s Sangli district found themselves in a desperate situation. Oversupply had resulted in prices crashing in the local turmeric market, Asia’s biggest, threatening their livelihood. And with several thousands growing the commodity across Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, any meaningful strategy to halt the price crash meant involving a sizeable number of farmers.

The Maharashtra forest department has registered an offence against a company operating a wind power project in Satara for allegedly felling around 400 trees, building an illegal road, and starting a forest fire in the buffer zone of the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve. The department has stopped work on the erection of new wind turbines in the forest village of Jinti in Patan taluka. The company also failed to obtain mandatory clearances from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and the National Tiger Conservation Authority to put up windmills, forest officials said.