Bhimabai Ujjan Pawar is standing in the mud and her goats are searching for leaves. She is a single woman from the Pardhi community, a scheduled tribe that is socially discriminated against. She never went to school and does not know her age, although village people say she would be around 55 years old. Armed with an axe, she walks through rain-ravaged fields in Varapgaon, a village in Maharashtra’s Beed district, cutting branches so her goats can eat the leaves they can’t reach. She seems indifferent to the thorns.
“This is all I have left,” she says, calling to the 15 grazing goats, four of which are still young. “I used to sell them and then buy my ration from Kalamb (a village with no market access). But I have lost 7 children and four goats in the floods. I had to throw them away. What to do?” She says.
She says that since her childhood till now she has never seen such heavy rain. Rains began in July and continued intermittently for several days. While the worst came in September, heavy rains made the situation even more serious. For example, on September 16, 2025, Beed received 143.7 mm of rainfall, the highest in the region in that 24-hour period.
Beed collector Vivek Johnson says, “This monsoon we received more than 130% of the total rainfall. Otherwise Beed is a semi-arid region.” Marathwada, a region comprising eight districts, is known to be drought-prone with low and irregular rainfall during the monsoon season. Marathwada divisional commissioner, Jitendra Papalkar, says it was the first time in history that the entire region was flooded.
There were 108 deaths in Marathwada alone. More than 54 lakh farmers have been affected and 41 lakh hectares of agricultural land has been destroyed. The Maharashtra government announced a package of ₹31,628 crore for flood-affected farmers in the state ahead of Diwali in October, but the distribution is still underway. Many farmers are burdened with institutional and non-institutional debts, with little means to repay them.
river force
“Historically, this is the first time that all the rivers have flooded at the same time. There was huge discharge from all the dams and 1.5 lakh cusecs of water was released at the same time. All the rivers were flowing above the danger mark. More than 70 of our villages in Beed alone were seriously affected. We had to do rescue by helicopter in Ashti (a town in Beed).”
Johnson says that rivers have changed their course in many places. “This was especially seen along the Sindafana,” he says. Although the Sindafana is a minor tributary of the Godavari river, it is an important river in Beed as its drainage basin covers 80% of the district.
Life on the banks of Manjra river also came to a standstill. Manjra is an important tributary of the Godavari, India’s second longest river. It originates in the Balaghat range of Beed and flows through Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana before joining the Godavari. It is a major waterway for the region.
Workers harvest the damaged soybean crop in a field in Beed district following the recent floods in Marathwada. , Photo Credit: Emmanuel Yogini
“My farm is not on the river bank, yet it has been completely damaged. I have 2 acres of land and had cultivated soybean. But look what the rains have done this time,” says Vikas Mahadev Shinde, 32, standing on a damaged bridge over the Manjra river in his village Bhopla. The village is on the border of Dharashiv and Beed, both districts affected by rain. Villagers remember how a man was swept away in the strong current in front of their eyes in September when the river was in spate. Damaged solar panels reveal a lot about the strength of the currents.
A few kilometers away, at the confluence of the Bobhati and Khatkal rivers, two tributaries of the Manjra, is the farm of Hanumant Bhosale. He had cultivated soybean on two acres of land. Today he cannot even walk to his farm. He says, “I am 60 years old. Not only me, but many previous generations have also not described such floods. We could not even imagine seeing so much water! The rains started on May 7 (2025) and did not stop.”
sleepless nights
Many villagers described how they spent sleepless nights as their crops and houses were destroyed by the heavy rains. “The rain was so heavy. We were afraid our houses would be blown away. The water would rise within a few hours,” says Ramraje Prabhu Gond, 39.
Borgaon, another village on the banks of Manjra river that has wreaked havoc in the district, has a partially collapsed house of Ramakrishna Rajendra Gavane. The 31-year-old farmer says that he has not received any government assistance yet. The government had announced immediate assistance of ₹10,000 for those whose houses had collapsed. He is worried about how he will support his family. His elderly mother has a hip injury and has difficulty walking. His wife will soon return from her parents’ home after giving birth to their child.
“I haven’t been able to sleep,” he says, standing outside on the debris of his home as his four-month-old nephew squeals inside his partially collapsed home. His sister is at home for her delivery. He is asking her to go 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 are in trouble?”
His ailing mother is distressed at the cost of everything: the delivery of her daughter, the delivery of her daughter-in-law. Looking at the idols of gods and goddesses, she says, “The crops have been ruined. A C-section (cesarean) will cost Rs 1 lakh.”
dark diwali
Farmers have gradually started receiving compensation, but many are still waiting for it. For example, Ramakrishna Gavane has not received a single rupee yet, he claims. The government had promised to distribute the funds before Diwali in October, but in many cases this did not happen. The entire region runs on an agriculture-based economy and its impact is felt on the markets as well. The crowd of customers at shops has reduced.
Subhashchandra Gaurilal Samdariya, owner of Marathwada Textile Store in Beed’s main market, says, “Earlier, you wouldn’t get space to stand even for a minute on this road. And today, look at the empty road. All the small shopkeepers who used to run their shops on credit had to close down. We are the biggest and oldest shop here, but even today we find it difficult.” The three-storey store, established in 1972, employs about 60 people. He says, “I have started losing my temper over small things. Business has not picked up this festive season. We all depend on the farmers here for business.” He also said that he did not know how he would pay the salary.
Atul Porwal of Porwal Shoes, a 25-year-old business, says the entire infrastructure is ready for farming. “We have no MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation), no industries. There are no other employment opportunities apart from agriculture. So our economy is still rural, agriculture-based,” he says. He says his friend who sells appliances told him that people are not buying refrigerators, air conditioners or any gadgets. Usually, when people come to buy shoes during the change of season, the number of customers is more, but this year it is minimal.
farmers in debt
Uday Singh Navnath Shinde of Borgaon village has so far received ₹9,500 in two installments. He has 6 acres of land. The government deposited ₹6,500 in his account before Diwali and ₹3,000 on 29 October. But he is a worried person. He says, “The cost of clearing my field is six times more than this compensation. Since the soil has been completely washed away, I have to re-silt my field after clearing the rotting crop. Rabi (winter) sowing seems a distant dream.” Showing his well buried under the debris, he says that the pump and sprinkler set have stopped working due to water.
He is already in debt. “I have a loan of ₹10 lakh. I got my daughter married just a few months ago. I took a loan for this. I thought I would sell this soybean and repay the loan, but look at what is left in my field now,” he points out, standing in ankle-deep mud. He says that moneylenders have started calling. “My daughter’s in-laws have asked for some gifts. How will I give anything to anyone? I haven’t even been able to clean the rotting crop from my field,” he says angrily, uprooting the rotting soybean plants and throwing them away.
Dattatreya Bhagwat Shinde, another farmer from the village, says the cost of clearing the field is ₹10,000 per acre. Most farmers lost their cattle, and the cattle’s fodder became drenched 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 run a fertilizer shop, or to run our household? Farming looks more and more unsustainable. We had sown Rabi season a fortnight ago. But the severity of the returning monsoon has ruined it.” He says the cost of education and health care has increased and floods and droughts are taking a toll. He talks about a villager from a neighboring village, who used to get ₹3,500 per acre for his 10 acres of land. “The cost of soybean cultivation per acre is ₹20,000. The cost of clearing the land due to previous losses is not even counted. Is this a joke?”
This week, the Maharashtra government announced that it has distributed ₹8,000 crore to nearly 40 lakh farmers in Maharashtra. Small and marginal farmers have demanded complete loan waiver. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis this week announced that a nine-member committee has been formed and loan waiver will be given.
vinaya.deshpande@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew
