Based on the survey conducted as per the norms mandated by the Government of India to assess the impact of monsoon failure, Madurai has reported a minimum of 50 per cent yield loss for all the crops in the district.
As per procedures, a ‘ground-truthing’ exercise was carried out in 10 per cent of the 618 affected villages, in which five locations for every crop cultivated in the village were identified and the damage recorded. The details collected, along with geo-tagged pictures from the locations, were then uploaded to Bhuvan portal.
“In the survey on these select locations, we found that there was a minimum of 50 per cent of yield loss in sown areas for all crops, which exceeded even up to 100 per cent in many locations,” said Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao.
He added that apart from yield loss the areas that were left unsown due to lack of rainfall and irrigation were also documented in the survey.
Officials said that the report submitted by Tamil Nadu government included data collected by similar surveys in all the districts.
A senior official said that based on Union government’s decision to declare Tamil Nadu as drought-affected a detailed enumeration exercise was likely to be conducted in every village to collect precise data on the loss, which would subsequently be used in deciding compensation.
