Bhimabai Ujan Pawar stands in a slot while her goats forage for leaves. She is a single woman from the Pardi community, a socially discriminated tribe. She has never been to school and doesn’t know her age, although people in the village say she must be around 55. Wielding an axe, she moves through a rain-ravaged farm in Varapgaon, a village in Beed district, Maharashtra, chopping branches so her goats can feed on leaves they can’t reach. She seems indifferent to the spikes.
“This is all I have left now,” she says, calling to her 15 goats, four of which are still young. “I used to sell them and then buy rations in Calamba (a market village that includes farms in the region). But I lost 7 kids and four goats in the flood. I just had to throw them away. What should I do?” – she says.
She has not seen such heavy rains since her childhood, she says. The rains began in July and continued for several days, stopping in between. While the worst happened in September, the situation worsened with heavy rains. For example, on September 16, 2025, Beed received 143.7 mm of rainfall, making it the highest in the region for that 24-hour period.
“Over 130% of the total rainfall has fallen this monsoon. Beed is a semi-arid region,” says Beed collector Vivek Johnson. Marathwada, a region consisting of eight districts, is known for being drought-prone with little and irregular rainfall during the monsoon season. It was the first time in history that the entire region saw floods, says Jitendra Papalkar, commissioner of Marathwada division.
108 people died in Marathwada alone. More than 54 lakh farmers were affected and 41 lakh hectares of farmland were devastated. The Maharashtra government had announced a package of Rs 31,628 crore for the state’s flood-affected farmers ahead of Diwali in October, but the disbursement is still ongoing. Several farmers are under the burden of institutional and non-institutional debts which they have no means to repay.
River forces
“This is the first time in history that all the rivers were flooded at the same time. There was a huge release from all the dams and 1.5 lakh cubic meters of water was released at the same time. All the rivers were flowing above the danger mark. We had more than 70 badly affected villages in Bida alone. We had to do a helicopter rescue in Ashti (a town in Bida),” says Johnson.
Johnson says rivers have changed course in several places. “This was especially noticeable in Sindfan,” he says. Although a minor tributary of the Godavari River, the Sindphana is an important river in Bidda as its catchment area covers 80% of the district.
Life was also disrupted on the banks of the Manjra River. The Manjra is a significant tributary of the Godavari, India’s second longest river. It originates in the Balaghat Bida range and flows through Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana before joining the Godavari. It is the main water artery of the region.
Workers in Beed district cut the damaged soybean crop in a field after the recent floods in Marathwada. | Photo: Emmanuel Yogini
“My field is not on the bank of the river, but it is completely damaged. I have 2 hectares of land and was growing soybeans. But look what the rains have done this time,” says 32-year-old Vikas Mahadev Shinde, standing on a damaged bridge over the Manjra River in his village of Bhopla. The village is located on the border of Darashiv and Beed, both areas suffering from rainfall. The villagers remember how in September, when the river overflowed, a strong current swept away a man before their eyes. Distorted solar panels speak eloquently about the power of the current.
A few kilometers from here, at the confluence of the Bobhati and Khatkal rivers, two tributaries of the Manjri, is Hanumant Bhosale Farm. He grew soybeans on two hectares of land. Today he cannot even reach his field. “I am 60 years old. Not only me, even past generations have never described such floods. We could not imagine that we will see so much water! The rains started on May 7 (2025) and have not stopped,” he says.
Sleepless nights
Several villagers recounted how they spent sleepless nights as heavy rains battered their crops and homes. “The rains were so heavy. We were afraid our houses would be washed away. The water would rise within hours,” said 39-year-old Ramraje Prabhu Gond.
In Borgaon, another village on the banks of the Manjra river that wreaked havoc in the district, lies the partially destroyed house of Ramkrushna Rajendra Gauhane. The 31-year-old farmer says that he has not yet received any government assistance. The government announced an immediate relief of INR 10,000 for those whose houses collapsed. He worries about how he will take care of his family. His elderly mother has an injured hip and finds it difficult to move. The wife will soon return from her parents’ house, having given birth to a child.
“I couldn’t sleep,” he says, standing on the street in the ruins of his home. His four-month-old nephew is babbling in the partially collapsed house. His sister is at home. He asks her to come back home. “I don’t want to live with the guilt of hurting their child.” She replies, “How can I leave you alone and run away when you’re in trouble?”
Their sick mother is worried about everything: the birth of her daughter, the birth of her daughter-in-law. “The crop is lost. It will cost a lakh (of rupees) for a caesarean section,” she says, looking at the idols of gods and goddesses.
Dark Dipavali
Farmers have gradually started receiving compensations, but many are still waiting for them. Ramkrushna Gauhane, for example, has not received a single rupee so far, he claims. The government had promised to release funds for Deepavali in October, but in many cases this did not happen. The entire region operates on an agrarian economy, and the consequences are felt in the markets. In stores, the pace decreased.
“Earlier, you couldn’t find a place to stand on this road even for a minute. But today, look at the empty road. All the small shopkeepers who kept their shops on credit were forced to close down. We are the biggest and oldest shop here, but even we are struggling today,” says Subhashchandra Gaurilal Samadaria, owner of Marathwada textile shop in Beeda’s main market. Founded in 1972, the three-story store employs about 60 people. “I’ve started losing my cool over little things. Business is down this festive season. We all depend on the farmers here for business,” he says, adding that he doesn’t know how he’s going to pay his salary.
Atul Porwal of the 25-year-old firm Porwal Shoes says the entire infrastructure is geared towards farming. “We have no MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation) and no industry. There is no other employment opportunity other than agriculture. So our economy is still rural, agrarian,” he says. He says that a friend who sells household appliances told him that people don’t buy refrigerators, air conditioners, or any gadgets. He himself usually has a lot of visitors during the change of season, when people come to buy shoes, but this year it is at a minimum.
Debt-ridden peasants
Udaisinha Navnath Shinde of Borgaon village received INR 9,500 in two installments. I own 6 acres of land. The government deposited Rs 6,500 into his account before Diwali and Rs 3,000 on October 29. But he is a concerned man. “Just the cost of clearing my field is six times more than this compensation. Since the soil has been completely washed away, I will have to re-silt my farm after clearing the rotting crop. Rabi (winter) sowing season seems like a distant dream,” he says. He shows his well buried under the debris, saying that the pumps and sprinkler systems have stopped working because of the water.
He is already in debt. “I have a loan of INR 10 lakh. I married my daughter off just a few months ago. I took a loan for it. I thought I would sell this soybean and pay off the loan, but look what’s left in my field now,” he points out, standing in ankle-deep slush. He says that loan sharks started calling. “My daughter-in-law has asked for some gifts. How can I give anything to anyone? I couldn’t even clean the rotten crops from my field,” he says, angrily plucking the rotten soybeans and throwing them away.
Dattatrey Bhagwat Shinde, another farmer in the village, says the cost of clearing a field is INR 10,000 per acre. Most of the farmers lost their cattle and the cattle feed was soaked and had to be thrown away.
Ismail Shaikh of Daithna, in Ambajogai taluka of Beed district, asks: “Why are we farming? To support a tractor seller, to support a fertilizer shop or to run our own house? Farming seems more and more unsustainable. We planted rape two weeks ago. But the severity of the receding monsoon has worn it down.” He says education and health care costs have risen, and floods and droughts are taking a toll on them. He tells of a resident of a nearby village who was getting ₹3,500 per acre for his 10 acres of land. “The cost of growing soybeans per acre is ₹20,000. The cost of clearing the land from previous damage is not even factored in. Is this a joke?”
The Maharashtra government this week announced that it has distributed Rs 8,000 crore to around 40 lakh farmers in the state of Maharashtra. Small and marginal farmers called for complete loan waiver. A nine-member committee has been set up and a loan waiver will be granted, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced this week.
vinaya.deshpande@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew
