Severe drought in India leads to rise in violence

A severe draught in a remote region in India has led to a sharp increase in violence - and even murder. As northern and central India continues to suffer thorough severe drought and oppressive heat, police in Bundelkhand and several other regions are reporting a rise in violent - and often deadly - clashes over water. After almost 10 years of below-average rainfall and several consecutive years of drought, the region's rivers, lakes, reservoirs and wells are drying up.
Disputes are a common problem in many places in India that face water shortages and Indian police report that the fighting is getting more frequent and bloody. In many parts of the country, neighbours, friends and family are turning on each other, desperate to protect what little water they have left, police records suggest.

Lal Singh Arya, Madhya Pradesh's urban administration and development minister, said the government is using all its resources to try to make sure everyone has water. But he predicted tensions will remain high until monsoon rains - which began recently in some areas - take hold. Activists say the government's failure to act to better manage water is partly to blame for the rise in violence.
'The present crisis is the fallout of over-consumption, wasteful use and inefficient water governance systems,' said Ajay Dubey, an activist with the environmental non-governmental organisation Prayatna, based in Madhya Pradesh.
'People are going to any lengths for the sake of water. They've lost hope that the situation will ever improve. Things were never so bad,' Dubey said.
Across much of the region, authorities have banned the use of water for washing cars or trucks, bathing cattle or irrigating crops. In most cities in Madhya Pradesh, the local government only supplies drinking water on one out of every two to seven days. The district administration of Sehore in Madhya Pradesh has temporarily taken charge of all water sources, whether government or privately owned, so that it can manage use of the dwindling resource. And in three towns in Madhya Pradesh, the use of water for anything other than drinking is banned.