Morachi Chincholi (Pune), July 23: Hiraben Nanekar hopes her two huge containers of water will last her a week. One is for her family of four and the other for peacocks in this village of Shirur tehsil, 60 km from Pune.

Morachi Chincholi is known for its special relationship with the peacock. The birds are venerated here, enough to get it recognition from the state as a tourist destination.

However, the delayed monsoon has caused a problem. With no water to irrigate land and barely enough to drink, the villagers are worried that their 650-odd peacocks may migrate.

“We have half empty stomachs,” says Kisanbai Nanekar, echoing the sentiments of the 2,000 villagers, pointing out that they reserve some of their food and water supplies for the peacocks.

On Sunday, Chandan Pathare and volunteers of the Jungle Cub group spread 2,000 kg of foodgrains across the vast parched fields for the peacocks. But the worry is water, which the birds require in huge quantities. Says Dr Satish Pande, an avid ornithologist who had conducted a census of the peacocks two years ago at the village: “These are huge birds and feed on insects, amphibians, reptiles, scorpions. They glean the foodgrains from the ground and eat it. But they require a lot of water.”

Chincholi Gram Panchayat Sarpanch Mahesh Gorde points out that the Centre has selected Morachi Chincholi as a tourist spot and sanctioned Rs 52 lakh towards its development. The state government has also sanctioned Rs 50 lakh for the village as a pilgrimage destination. Another Rs 8 lakh has been spent on building tanks, but there is not a drop of water in any. Now there are plans to bring water from a canal from the adjoining Ganegaon village.

Till then their only hope is the tankers. “The authorities have assured to send us a tanker with a capacity of 12,000 litres of water on August 1,” says Gorde.

• Out of 78 tehsils in Marthwada, 67 have seen rainfall less than 50 per cent. Sowing has been done in only 19 per cent of the land. With water scarce in dams, it is being kept for domestic purposes and will not be provided for irrigation

• With sowing less than 10 per cent by some estimates in Purandar tehsil, the local MLA says they are working on a proposal to reimburse farmers for expenses incurred due to sowing. With few farmers turning up, market transactions at the tehsil headquarters are down 80 per cent

• In Solapur, Kharif and even a Rabi crop is now a distant possibility. With only 15 per cent rainfall recorded in June and July totally dry, the region has witnessed only 3.5 per cent sowing and standing crops of soybean and sunflower are threatened. According to District Collector Jagdish Patil, more than 45 villages and 163 hamlets are facing acute water shortage, while prices of dry fodder have doubled

• Rains have staged a comeback in Vidarbha in the past four days, but the long dry spell has already hit overall production figures. Wardha, which grows cotton and soyabean, is the worst affected in the Nagpur division.