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Parimal Dabhi

DHOLI (SURENDRANAGAR): In summer, water is a precious commodity in many parts of the country. But at Dholi village in Limbdi taluka, one of the driest villages of Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: Rasool Vora (60) is a household name in 45 villages spread across Patan and Mehsana for his traditional knowledge in herbal medicine.

Saurashtra was flooded since rainwater could not drain THE state highway between Viramgam and Surendranagar towns in Gujarat presents a stark contrast. On one side is a carpet of green fields for miles, and on the other, decaying jowar and cotton crops, at places submerged in water. The 60 km highway itself remained under water for three days in mid-September. The contrast makes

Following heavy rains in the last two days, the Surendranagar district is facing floods.

Army helicopters have been pressed into emergency service and over 5,000 people have been evacuated as the Saurashtra region in Gujarat continued to be lashed by heavy rains.

Ahmedabad: Early birds among BT cotton farmers in Surendranagar and Bhavnagar districts have been bit by the millibug. Those farmers who had sown BT cotton just 20 to 25 days ago in their farms are the worst affected in Surendranagar and Bhavnagar districts. There are several cases where farmers have lost all their BT cotton crops. "I had sown the crop just 24 days ago. But today, I lost hope that it could survive after millibug attack on my farm. Now, I have to sow again,'' says a farmer, Sankar Golani of Sayla in Surendrangar district.

Had the Gujarat State Water Supply and Sewerage Board (GSWSSB) repaired this leak, some 5,000 people in Surendranagar would have been going thirsty. Living on the outskirts of the town, it is a routine for women of this middle-class locality of Khann to spend hours standing by the leaking pipeline. And fights are common too. The pipeline supplies water from Dholi Dhaja dam to surrounding villages. If there was no leak, people here would have had to drink extremely brackish water from hand pumps.

Conditions of water scarcity have been aggravated in Vadali village of Gujarat due to the persisting differences between higher castes, chiefly the ahirs, and those lower in the hierarchy such as the kolis and other dalit castes. Power relations are linked to social and economic hierarchy and the issue of resource inequity must be tackled through policy and advocacy measures.

thousands of saltpan workers, called Agarias, from 107 villages in Gujarat's Rajkot, Surendranagar, Patan and Kutch districts face displacement with the Gujarat forest department serving them an

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