INDIA: Millions of parched and sweating Indians are praying for the monsoon rains, delayed by nearly three weeks. Northern states are on the verge of a severe drought that could lead to a major crisis, writes Rahul Bedi, in New Delhi
As a result, desperate people are flocking to temples, mosques, churches and gurdwaras (Sikh temples) to solicit the rain gods to pour down on them.
Muslims in India's most populous northern Uttar Pradesh state which is part of the country's "food bowl", performed two special ishaqas ( prayers ) for rain in the capital Lucknow this week to ward off calamity while Hindus appealed to Lord Indira, the rain god for his generosity. Sikhs prayed in their holiest Golden Temple in northern Amritsar for rain and neighbourhood worship places across the region were packed with devotees asking their gods for just one blessing - thundershowers.
Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Mr D S Bagga said the administration was worried the drought being experienced in agriculturally fertile state would spread. "We have already been forced to declare a drought in 15 of 70 state districts. And if the rains do not arrive soon the whole state will be plunged into a major crisis," he added.
Mr Bagga said over 50 per cent of crops in the drought-hit areas had been burnt in the intense heat with temperatures averaging around 42 degrees Celsius. The state government was also releasing 2.4 billion rupees (€49 million) to help drought-affected farmers.
The monsoon rains that first hit the southern Indian coast of Kerala in June and spread across the rest of the country over the next three months, have been uneven this year. Whilst drought persists in the north, flash floods, triggered by ceaseless rain across northwestern and western India have killed hundreds of people and rendered tens of thousands of others homeless.