Maharashtra...

Thirteen of Jalgaon’s 15 tehsils, all 11 tehsils of Beed, all nine tehsils of Aurangabad, 11 of 14 tehsils in Ahmednagar and nine of 11 tehsils in Solapur are facing severe drought conditions.

In October, the state listed 180 tehsils, on the basis of a report by the National Centre for Crop Forecasting (NCCF), a forecast agency that works under agriculture ministry.

The NCCF report is compiled based on remote sensing data on the crop area sown, groundwater table index, reservoir storage, vegetation index and deficient rainfall.

However, after the manual verification, also called groundtruthing, the state has decided to declare drought in 151 tehsils. The manual verification was conducted by officials from state relief and rehabilitation and agriculture departments.

The intensity of the drought will be contingent upon the values of at least three out of four impact indicators — Agriculture, Remote Sensing, Soil Moisture and Hydrology conditions. If all the three impact indicators are in severe category. than the state can declare severe drought in those areas. Similarly, if two of the selected three impact indicators are in thw moderate or severe class, then the area will have to be declared as affected with moderate drought, a senior official from the relief and rehabilitation department said. United States.

He served as FTII chairman for a year, cutting short an otherwise three-year tenure. Kher’s resignation comes at a time when students have started protesting once again, this time over poor infrastructure at the institute. Kher took over six months after his predecessor, Chauhan’s tenure ended amid stutdent protests that lasted 139 days, one of the longest in the institute’s history.

FTII students said they were shocked by Kher’s resignation. “We were hoping he would intervene for us and help us get better facilities. He has resigned at a time when FTII is facing problems,” said Rohit Kumar, a 2016 batch student, who was also a former secretary of the FTII students’ union.

“I’m sure they’re sad about the resignation, but I know they’ll find somebody who’ll guide them,” Kher said on Wednesday. He said for now, a new chairperson has not been decided on.

(With inputs from Yashika Mathur)