Maharashtra declares drought in 265 of its 358 talukas and activates Trigger-1 of the Drought Management Code

9 October 2026

The Maharashtra government has declared drought in 265 of the State's 358 talukas through a Government Resolution of the Relief and Rehabilitation Department.
The declaration covers 74 per cent of the State's area and spans 32 districts, including Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nandurbar, Pune, Solapur, Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Beed, Latur, Dharashiv, Nanded, Parbhani, Hingoli, Buldhana, Amravati, Akola, Washim, Yavatmal, Wardha, Nagpur, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli.
The Resolution rests on an Agriculture Commissioner's report and activates Trigger-1 under the Drought Management Manual, 2016, the first stage of the State's drought-response framework.
From 1 June to 18 September the State recorded 755.9 mm of rain against an average of 932.3 mm, a deficit of 18.8 per cent.
The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Division recorded 424.5 mm against a normal of 613.1 mm, a deficit of 30.8 per cent, while the Konkan division was short by 6.3 per cent.
Dharashiv and Beed received no rainfall from July onwards.
Relief measures include exemption from land revenue, restructuring of crop loans and deferment of recovery, electricity bill concessions for agricultural pumps above 7.5 HP, waiver of examination fees for school and college students, relaxed norms for rural employment guarantee works, tanker supply of drinking water and arrangements for foodgrain and fodder.
District collectors were directed to begin crop damage surveys with geotagged photographs and report through the Commissioner of Agriculture, with crop-loss assistance to follow in a later Resolution.