'Marathwada is the suicide capital of Maharashtra.'
'To stop such man-made disasters, the government should immediately come up with a rightful package, not this charitable approach to compensation.'
Marathwada faces devastating floods -- with two days of heavy rains -- that destroyed crops across over 28 lakh (2.8 million) hectares, with cotton and soybean bearing the brunt of the disaster.
The floods, triggered by uncontrolled water release from major dams including Jayakwadi, Painganga and Yeldari (the second largest dam in Marathwada; first being Jayakwadi), have caused crop losses estimated at over Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion).
The Maharashtra government announced compensation of Rs 6,800 per hectare for damage suffered by crops in this region during July-August -- a figure that pales in comparison to the Rs 40,000 per hectare given during 2018 Kolhapur floods.
Rajan Kshirsagar, president, All India Kisan Sabha, a resident of Marathwada's Parbhani district, tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff that this a "man-made disaster" resulting from gross mismanagement of irrigation infrastructure.
The crisis is compounded by amendments to the Disaster Management Act and changes to crop insurance schemes that have further reduced farmer compensation.
With the festival season on, thousands of farming families face financial ruin, raising concerns about potential farmer suicides in a region already known as Maharashtra's 'suicide capital.'
The floods have particularly affected sharecroppers and tenant farmers -- comprising 27% of cultivators -- who remain outside the compensation framework due to lack of land ownership documents, making them the most vulnerable section in this agrarian crisis, says Kshirsagar.
Can you describe the scale of crop damage in Marathwada due to the recent floods?
The scale is enormous -- more than 4 lakh (400,000) hectares of crops have been damaged.
Cotton and soybean, which are the major kharif crops in Marathwada, have suffered 100% crop loss in affected areas. The total crop loss may reach Rs 30,000 crore.
This flood happened because of uncontrolled release of water from Jayakwadi, Painganga, Yeldari and several other dams in the region.
Though rainfall is a natural phenomena, the resulting flood is a man-made disaster.
Despite Maharashtra going through disastrous floods in Kolhapur earlier (in 2018), the government formed a mandatory committee under (Hiralal) Mendhegiri from the Water and Land Management Institute.
But even after their recommendations (the Mendhegiri Committee recommended technical, feasible changes to the MWRRA [Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority] Act and water distribution from the Ahmednagar and Nashik dams), no proper procedures have been followed.
The simultaneous release of water from Jayakwadi, Painganga, Siddeshwar, Purna project, and other dams increased the flood impact.
There's no coordination between dam authorities -- on the Godavari alone, there are 11 bunds, but they don't coordinate on gate structures and carrying capacity.
In 2021, I raised this issue when water from Mahalgaon (dam) was released without any instruction, affecting downstream areas in Marathwada.
The dam authorities don't study blue lines and red lines of floods before releasing water nor do they follow IMD projections about rainfall to manage their storage accordingly.
What role has the recent amendment to the Disaster Management Act played in reducing relief measures?
The Union government amended the Disaster Management Act in April 2025. They made so many changes that actually show the government is withdrawing from relief measures.
That's why state governments, which earlier declared compensation and relief up to 3 hectares last year, have now reduced it to 2 hectares. This is another assault on farmers.
The amount has also been reduced because this amendment made by the government does not permit changing the relief measures through state governments. That right now lies with the Union government.
So our first demand is that the Union government, seeing the situation all over India -- this has happened in Himachal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Maharashtra -- should declare this flood and rainfall as a national disaster.
Despite these many states having such disasters, the Union government is not declaring it a national disaster, and because of non-declaration, no central package has been offered to Maharashtra.
Is the Rs 2,515 crore relief compensation announced by the state government enough?
This compensation is a mockery of our farmers.
In 2018, when Kolhapur was ravaged by floods, they declared Rs 40,000 per hectare. Why is it now Rs 6,800 for Marathwada? This is discrimination.
The cost of production has risen steeply since 2018 -- they have withdrawn fertiliser subsidies, put GST on fertilisers, and withdrawn insurance schemes.
This Rs 6,800 (per hectare) cannot even take care of the cost of investment, let alone compensate farmers for their losses.
Another major issue is that government rules don't recognise loss of machinery.
Many farmers have lost their pump sets in this flood, but the government's order -- both Union and state -- doesn't acknowledge machinery losses. Their rules are faulty and discriminatory, treating compensation as charity to farmers when it's a rightful compensation.
What has been the impact of changes to crop insurance schemes?
The changes to crop insurance schemes have been disastrous for farmers.
The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana was originally introduced as a one rupee scheme to protect farmers against losses from floods, droughts and other natural calamities, ensuring they received adequate compensation.
However, when it was discovered that insurance companies had misappropriated tens of thousands of crores, the government amended the scheme.
Instead of tightening the system to safeguard farmers' rights, the amendments weakened the scheme, reducing payouts and making it extremely difficult for farmers to recover their losses.
Today, farmers affected by the Marathwada floods cannot expect proper compensation from insurance.
Essentially, crop insurance has become outsourced disaster management, benefiting finance corporates and insurance giants rather than the farmers themselves.
This represents a second assault on farmers, coming on top of the devastation caused by the floods, and is completely unacceptable.
There is an urgent need for reforms to ensure that farmers receive fair, timely, and adequate compensation for both natural and man-made disasters.
What are your specific demands from the government?
First, the Union government should declare this flood and rainfall as a national disaster, as it has happened in Himachal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana.
Second, we demand at least Rs 70,000 per hectare crop compensation, Rs 25 lakh for life lost, and Rs 1 lakh for livestock loss.
Third, there's a huge chunk of agricultural labourers and sharecroppers -- 27% of farmers according to government data -- but no relief measures reach them because relief is decided based on land ownership.
At least Rs 1 lakh compensation should be given to all flood-affected farmers, labourers and tenant farmers.
I want to emphasise that according to COP27 resolutions (2022 UN climate summit addressing global climate action and emissions accountability), these natural disasters are due to pollution from advanced countries, but the punishment is given to farmers of developing countries.
Our farmers and affected people have a complete right to rightful compensation based on these international agreements, not charity.
You've been critical of the state government's irrigation management. Who do you hold responsible?
The entire irrigation system is now in the hands of people like Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (the state water resources minister), who uses 26 TMC of water in his own constituency (Shirdi in Ahmednagar district in the Marathwada region which is currently reeling under severe flood) while all of Maharashtra is starving.
Earlier, Devendra Fadnavis was talking about the Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam, but after Ajit Pawar's inclusion in the government, what corrective measures have they taken to correct the irrigation system? Nothing.
Vikhe Patil must resign -- he's an irresponsible water lord making this entire situation worse.
The irrigation minister should take responsibility and resign as flood control is exactly the major objective of dam irrigation projects.
While releasing water, they should check the downstream carrying capacity of all structures, but there's no such coordination.
How do you view the discrimination between different regions in relief measures?
The discrimination between regions in relief measures is very clear, and it is insulting to the farmers of Marathwada.
In 2018, when Kolhapur was hit by floods and Devendra Fadnavis was the chief minister, the government announced Rs 40,000 per hectare as compensation. Today, when Marathwada has lost more than 4 lakh hectares of crops, the state is offering just Rs 6,800 per hectare.
How can the same state government apply such vastly different criteria for the same kind of disaster?
This shows that relief is being treated not as a rightful entitlement but as a matter of political convenience.
Farmers of Marathwada, who are already battling drought and repeated agrarian crises, are now subjected to another layer of discrimination.
Fadnavis has long claimed that, as someone from Vidarbha, he stands for equitable development across regions of Maharashtra. But in practice, he is repeating the same old patterns of bias that have historically disadvantaged Marathwada.
People here will not tolerate this injustice. Our farmers' movement is determined to resist these double standards, because this is not charity -- it is compensation that farmers are rightfully owed.
Anything less is nothing short of betrayal.
What systemic challenges do Marathwada farmers face beyond floods?
First, agriculture is not supported properly during production, and farmers don't get rightful prices for their produce.
Take cotton -- there's been a systematic attack through withdrawal of 11% import duty on August 19 (2025), leading to cheap cotton imports and collapsing prices. There's also a pink bollworm attack on cotton crops adding to farmers' frustration.
Similarly, reducing import duty on palm oil has collapsed soybean prices.
The India-US trade deal is going to be disastrous for farmers, particularly in Maharashtra, as it targets our major crops. This trade deal is concerned with six major products -- cotton, soybean, maize/corn, milk products, ethanol, and wheat. These are their interests to capture the Indian market.
In that light, it's a very difficult situation before Maharashtra farmers. We need all kisan organisations to unite against these anti-farmer policies.
Are you concerned about farmer suicides given the current crisis?
Marathwada is already the suicide capital of Maharashtra. Now festival seasons are coming -- Dussehra and Diwali -- when every farmer brings his daughter home for celebration.
How can they go for festivals in this ridiculous situation? What face will they show to their families?
This shock may trigger suicides. To stop such man-made disasters, the government should immediately come up with a rightful package, not this charitable approach to compensation.
Newspapers are flooded with reports of political parties making visits to Marathwada. What's your take on this political attention?
It's good that every leadership should reach out to masses and support them in whatever possible way. But the first duty is of the government -- they should comply with their constitutional duty.
Where are the ministers from the ruling government? Not a single minister from the Fadnavis government has yet connected with the masses in Marathwada. This shows their priorities.
Why is the Union government not reaching there with their team for aerial surveys and ground assessment?
Whenever there's a disaster in Maharashtra, the Union government discriminates against Maharashtra. This pattern of neglect needs to end.
Natural disaster is a Constitutional responsibility of the Union government. State governments have limited resources and are mostly reliant on Union support.
The 15th Finance Commission recommendations are anti-farmer and anti-relief measures -- they're trying to disown disaster management relief. We're seeing that disaster-affected people have been neglected by the Union government not just in Maharashtra, but in Punjab, Himachal, all over India.
What is your key recommendation to prevent such disasters in future?
Irrigation management must be updated and upgraded immediately. There are laws about irrigation that must be implemented, and engineers should be held responsible for their duties. They are paid for their hydrological knowledge, but they don't follow any engineering protocols or regulatory framework.
Why didn't they manage to control this flood when dams are built specifically for flood control as a major objective of irrigation projects?
Earlier, the dams were full -- why didn't they release water in a sustained manner instead of simultaneous massive releases?
What we see is natural rainfall converting into disaster, which is a mockery of technology and engineering.
Though rainfall may be on the higher side, dams have been made to regulate it -- the absence of that regulation and management is what punishes people.
They should have studied whether they follow the manual for how dams should be filled and how they should be operated, but none of this was done.