One day in early June, Awesh Bhai obtained a Whatsapp message from the Gujarat State Catastrophe Administration Authority warning him that Cyclone Biparjoy would make landfall in Gujarat within the subsequent 5 days.
Awesh Bhai lives within the city of Maliya in Morbi district, slightly below 50 km from the coast – shut sufficient that it will really feel the influence of the cyclone.
He set to work to restrict the harm he was anticipating. Among the many measures he deliberate was to unscrew photo voltaic panels that powered a pump that he had purchased with the assistance of a subsidy supplied by the Gujarat authorities. The motor helped him pump saline water, which flowed underground and from close by streams that related to the ocean, into sections of flat land, referred to as salt pans. Right here the water would step by step evaporate to depart behind salt, his foremost supply of livelihood.
“However the second I shared the information of the approaching cyclone with my labourers, all of them packed up their momentary huts and rushed away from the salt farms for security,” Awesh Bhai mentioned. “We couldn’t take off the panels in time.”
In mid-June, the cyclone hit Maliya. Awesh Bhai misplaced eight of his 16 photo voltaic panels. The cyclone additionally carried mud that blended with about 500 tonnes of salt he had already harvested, making it unfit to promote. “Over the ten acres that we harvest salt, we confronted losses of about Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh final yr,” he mentioned.
Awesh Bhai is an Agariya, a time period that refers to a bunch of small-scale, conventional salt-makers in Gujarat who hail from 4 totally different caste and spiritual teams. They perform the work below a Central authorities notification of 1948 that exempts any particular person who makes salt on lower than 10 acres of land from acquiring a lease.
An estimated 45,000 Agariyas make salt in Gujarat’s Little Rann of Kutch, a triangular desert shared between 5 districts – Morbi, Kutch, Surendranagar, Patan, and Banaskantha. Gujarat is India’s highest salt-producing state, and accounts for 85% of the nation’s whole manufacturing – in 2022, the state produced 228 lakh tonnes. The produced salt is processed for human consumption, but in addition as uncooked materials for different merchandise, like caustic soda, fertilisers, and paints. Of the full salt produced in Gujarat, 31% comes from Agariyas within the Little Rann of Kutch.
Nonetheless, in the previous few years, the manufacturing of salt has seen a decline throughout all salt-producing states. In Gujarat, it fell by 4% in simply six years between 2016 and 2022, an evaluation of information introduced in response to a Rajya Sabha query confirmed.
“The autumn in Gujarat is majorly due to two causes,” mentioned Bharat Raval, president of the Indian Salt Manufacturing Affiliation, or ISMA. “Growing cyclones on the coast between April and Could, and prolonged monsoons.”
Certainly, the final three many years have seen important adjustments in Gujarat’s local weather. An evaluation of meteorological information from 1980 to 2020 discovered a 52% enhance within the frequency of cyclonic storms within the Arabian sea, an 80% enhance of their length, and a rise of about 40% of their depth within the post-monsoon interval.
Residents of the area additionally famous that the Little Rann had been seeing “kam mausam baarish”, their time period for unseasonal rains, and an total enhance within the quantity of rain within the area. Whereas information particular to the Little Rann is just not obtainable, meteorologists have documented adjustments in local weather in Kutch district, the place part of the Little Rann falls: over a span of 30 years between 1983 and 2013, the common rainfall within the district through the monsoon months from June to September nearly doubled from 378 mm to 674 mm.
These adjustments in local weather have spelled catastrophe for the salt-making business, which benefited earlier from the restricted rain within the desert and the sharp daylight it obtained via the yr. The adjustments are shortening the salt manufacturing season, negatively affecting the standard of salt, delaying manufacturing, and inflicting losses in crores for giant corporations.
“Salt is likely one of the least expensive and most important commodities,” Raval mentioned. “Proper now, the federal government is just not giving consideration to the issue. Once they lastly do this, will probably be very late. The business won’t be able to get well in a single day.”
The adjustments in local weather are additionally disrupting the livelihoods of small-scale salt miners. “Ours is a occupation that’s nearly utterly depending on the climate,” mentioned Awesh Bhai. “Lekin ab mausam palti kha raha hai,” he mentioned – however now the climate is popping over.
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The little Rann of Kutch spans roughly 5,000 sq. km. The panorama adjustments dramatically via the yr. Through the monsoon, seasonal rivers drain into the desert, whereas seawater flows immediately over land nearer to the coast. This successfully converts the desert right into a wetland, and renders it inaccessible.
Every September, the ocean retreats and the seasonal rivers dry up, leaving an unlimited expanse of flat land. This marks the beginning of the interval of salt-manufacturing, which lasts up until March and April the next yr.
There are broadly two sorts of producers. Nearer to the coast, and with easy accessibility to highways, are corporations that make salt throughout 1000’s of acres of land. These corporations sometimes make karkatch, a powdery number of salt that may be produced each two months. Some Agariyas additionally work near the coast, and make karkatch.
Most Agariyas, nonetheless, work additional inland, and manufacture vadagara, a salt selection that’s made up of enormous crystals that take eight months to reap.
At the beginning of the salt-making months, the Agariyas rent tractors, load them up with rations and their belongings. They then drive from cities and villages on the periphery of the desert via marshy land to succeed in the areas the place they arrange salt farms.
By the point they put up momentary huts made with bamboo and tarpaulin, the marshy land dries up utterly – it’s sometimes then obtainable to them for the following eight months to make salt.
In early January, when Scroll visited components of the Little Rann in Surendranagar and Morbi districts, solar-powered motors pumped out saline groundwater into massive, shallow pits a couple of foot deep. From there, water flowed out via barely sloping channels that Agariyas dig from scratch every year, to 4 different successive pits. On this course of, water evaporates, rising the salinity of the remaining water. By March and April, water evaporates nearly utterly from the ultimate pit, leaving crystals of salt that the Agariyas accumulate.
Fluctuating and excessive local weather patterns have an effect on this manufacturing course of in a number of, interlinked methods.
As in Awesh Bhai’s case, maybe probably the most dramatic and visual harm occurs on account of cyclones.
Older generations of Agariyas famous that the incidence of cyclones has elevated in recent times. Not solely do robust cyclones trigger fast harm to photo voltaic panels, the momentary huts and high quality of salt, additionally they shorten the salt season.
“Normally, the salt season winds up on the finish of June,” mentioned ISMA’s Raval. He added that almost all cyclones in recent times had made landfall in Could, which successfully ends the season a month or two earlier. “Ending two months earlier means a lack of about 60 lakh tonnes of salt,” Raval mentioned.
Karim Juma, a 52-year-old Agariya, identified that in Maliya, cyclones are accompanied by robust tidal waves – these waves carry saline water as far inland as Maliya via streams. These streams typically overflow, submerging the entry roads to the salt pans; water can then take weeks to withdraw. “Throughout this time, the water doesn’t enable us to enter the desert space even with our vehicles,” he mentioned. “So, in case a few of our harvested salt is saleable, we’re not capable of get transportation to promote it to factories.”
Cyclones additionally have an effect on bigger corporations that function within the area, akin to Dev Salt, in Morbi district. The corporate makes 5 lakh tonnes of the multi-crop kurkatch yearly by drawing seawater into salt pans throughout 7,000 acres and concentrating it via a mechanised model of the method that Agariyas use.
Final yr, the corporate suffered main losses on account of Cyclone Biparjoy. The cyclone and accompanying excessive tides flooded the desert the place the corporate operates. The corporate misplaced 50% of its salt manufacturing, in accordance with Vivek Dhruna, an industrial relations and liaison officer of Dev Salt.
Salt producers in Morbi construct mud bundhs round 5 ft excessive to forestall high-tide seawater from mixing with the salt pans via the yr.
However Dhruna famous that always these bundhs can’t bear the influence of intense cyclones.
“The water then seeps into the mud bundhs, making them weaker,” he mentioned. When this occurs, loosened mud and different impurities from the bundh additionally combine with the saline water, he defined, including, “This hampers the standard of salt.”
He famous that the salt nearer to the partitions would have greater quantities of those impurities, and that due to this fact, “In such circumstances, we harvest salt solely past 25 ft from the wall of the bundhs.”
Salt-makers then have to rent machines and labour to strengthen the bundhs once more. “So, the price of manufacturing for the salt that yr will increase,” Dhruna mentioned.
Meteorological information help Agariyas’ anecdotal accounts of extra and unseasonal rain within the area. Indian Meteorological Division information from climate stations in three cities in Kutch – Kandla, Mundra and Naliya – present a rise in “wet days” over the previous 30 years. Particularly, between the many years of 1990–2000 and 2011–2020, the variety of wet days that Kandla noticed elevated from a median of 12 to twenty. Between the identical durations, Mundra noticed a rise from 14.6 to twenty, and Naliya, from 9.8 to 14.3.
In occasions of extra rain, dams within the area, such because the Narmada and Machhu dams, usually fill past capability – authorities then launch extra water, which flows via canals, a few of that are near salt pans.
Salt farmers famous that if this freshwater, or “meetha pani”, drains into the desert, it will possibly combine with the saline brine being evaporated in Agariyas’ pits. “This dilutes the diploma of salinity within the water, and we now have to restart the salt-making course of once more,” mentioned Deelabhai Khambalia, a salt-maker who lives just a few kilometres away from Savadia, and whose hut within the desert is located on the sting of a small lake manufactured from extra water drained out from a canal close by.
Khambalia added, “We’ve got to manually construct bundhs to forestall the candy water from coming into into our salt pans.”
The bundhs that Agariyas construct are embankments manufactured from mud, round two ft excessive. Constructing them is a time-consuming exercise. Khambalia’s spouse Sharda Ben defined that in 2023, “Once we ought to have been doing salt work, we have been doing mud work.”
Aside from the final yr, she recounted that the administration additionally launched greater than the standard quantity of water via the canal in 2015 and 2017.
The method of constructing salt can also be disrupted by the late withdrawal of the monsoon and unseasonal rains.
Anif Mohammad, a 41-year-old Agariya who makes salt round 10 km from Dev Salt, famous that he sometimes started his work across the competition of Janmashatmi, which often falls in August. “Now, the rains will not be sticking to their time,” he mentioned. Now, he usually begins work after Diwali, which often falls in October or November.
“This yr, we started making the salt pans on November 25, after the water from Machhu had lastly dried up,” mentioned Mohammad. “Then by November 27, it rained, which stalled our work as soon as extra.”
Unseasonal rain mixes with saline water within the pits, diluting its salinity, delaying the method by which salt crystals are shaped. In some situations, when rains happen after salt crystals start to kind, “it melts the crystals away, destroying that crop”, mentioned Karai Ben, who’s in her late thirties. “Final yr in March, first heavy wind got here after which rain,” she mentioned, including that this broken 900 tonnes of her salt.
Final yr, 60-year-old Dev Bhai Savadia was capable of journey the 30 km from his village Patdi to the desert solely in October, delaying his salt-making course of by a month. “The monsoon ended late, and the desert was nonetheless filled with water so we couldn’t enter,” he mentioned. Usually, monsoon showers lasted in Gujarat from July to August. However in the previous few years, rains have prolonged until September and even October.
A delay by a month meant that Savadia would in all probability keep a month longer to make up for the misplaced time for salt manufacturing. However this prolonged time interval would coincide with the arrival of cyclones. “Staying longer in summer time months means that we’ll be risking mud storms and cyclones, which mixes mud with the salt that’s prepared on the time,” he mentioned.
Rains hamper salt manufacturing in different methods additionally. “The clouds that accompany unseasonal rains decrease the evaporation fee,” mentioned Dev Salt’s Dhruna. This extends the time wanted to create one crop of salt. “With unfavourable climate, one crop of salt can take an extra month and a half to reap,” he mentioned.
Savadia famous that these days, “it rains not less than three-four occasions after we come to the desert, which didn’t occur earlier”. Final yr, after unseasonal rain battered his 10 acres of salt pans, Savadia misplaced 500 tonnes of about 1,300 tonnes of salt he had manufactured. This value him round Rs 1 lakh from his annual earnings. “I get apprehensive now after I see darkish clouds within the sky,” Savadia mentioned.
Salt-makers informed Scroll that though they confronted important losses on account of cyclones and extra and unseasonal rain, that they had up to now not seen important help from the administration. Each small-scale Agariyas in addition to massive corporations and merchants mentioned that that they had not obtained compensation for losses that they had suffered.
Bharat Somera, a coordinator at Surendranagar with Agariya Heetrakshak Manch, a collective of conventional salt-makers in Gujarat, famous that out of round 3,500 households who suffered losses in 2021 on account of Cyclone Tauktae, solely 75 obtained compensation. “This compensation was given solely to these whose salt had crystallised and had been harvested earlier than getting broken due to the storm,” Somera mentioned.
Pankti Jog, programme individual with the Manch, defined that even those that did obtain compensation obtained solely Rs 2,500 for every of their salt pans, every of which is roughly 150 ft broad and 500 ft lengthy. This quantity “is a really, very low worth for the harm suffered”, she mentioned.
Somera added that other than such funds granted in response to particular issues, “There have been no clear pointers of who ought to get compensation.”
Scroll emailed the district administration to ask about why many Agariyas had not obtained compensation. By the point this text was revealed, there had been no reply.
In Maliya, Agariyas have written to district officers in addition to the chief minister to demand compensation. “We even put out movies of the harm on account of cyclones to our salt,” mentioned Rajesh Bhimani, a younger Agariya. “Officers even got here to survey the harm final yr, however we now have not obtained any compensation up to now.”
With out monetary help for losses, small-scale Agariyas flip to borrowing cash.
In Surendranagar district, the place salt pans are located between 30 km and 50 km from the closest municipality, Agariyas promote salt to merchants who act as middlemen. These merchants think about costly transportation prices and pay low charges to the Agariyas for the salt, ranging between Rs 100 and Rs 150 per tonne. When Agariyas face losses, they’re usually compelled to ask merchants for advance funds for the next yr’s harvest – when they’re hit by consecutive years of losses, they develop into trapped in a cycle of debt.
The chance that Agariyas face may also enhance relying on the number of salt that they make. “Since Vadagara is grown simply yearly, the chance to Agariyas who develop this selection is felt extra in case a cyclone or rain occurs, as a result of their effort of your entire season is misplaced,” mentioned Harinesh Pandya, managing trustee of the Agariya Heetrakshak Manch. “Within the case of karkatch, which is a multi-crop, Agariyas could make extra salt in two-month cycles in case one fails.” Pandya defined that the Manch has been engaged on enabling vadagara farmers to shift to creating karkatch to cut back the dangers they face, and that their efforts had seen some success.
The organisation can also be encouraging salt-makers to diversify their merchandise to cut back dependence on salt alone. One such product is the liquid left over after the salt crystallises, referred to as bittern. Bittern is wealthy in magnesium, bromide, and calcium salts, and may be an enter for different industrial use, akin to within the therapy of waste water.
In Surendranagar, some salt-makers have began promoting this bittern. “I’ve been promoting bittern for the final 5 years,” Savadia mentioned. “For all my salt pans collectively, I get between Rs 40,000 and 50,000 per season.”
As a longer-term answer, ISMA has been demanding that salt be registered as an agricultural commodity somewhat than as a mining product, as it’s at the moment categorised. “Salt is going through all of the impacts of climate and local weather, simply as agricultural merchandise face,” Raval mentioned.
The change in classification would make sure that salt is assigned a minimal help worth, and may be offered at marketplaces organised by Agricultural Product Market Committees, which regulate costs and safeguards producers from exploitation. This may additionally enable makers to buy crop insurance coverage for his or her salt, defined Jog. “Such insurance coverage would assist salt farmers at occasions of unseasonal rain and cyclones,” she mentioned. “It’s going to give a correct coverage to evaluate the harm and compensation.”
Agariyas imagine this demand is totally justified. “We see this as farming solely. It’s salt farming,” mentioned Bhimani. “Whether it is registered as an agricultural product, there’ll 100% be advantages to us. To date, all of us who make salt have solely been exploited.”
However salt-makers famous that help from the federal government solely gave the impression to be dwindling. Dhruna defined that in earlier years, the state authorities had an workplace to supervise the business, however that it had since been closed. The workplace, referred to as the salt commissioner’s workplace, oversaw issues akin to high quality management and distribution, and was additionally chargeable for assessing damages “brought about to salt works on account of pure calamities and to work out monetary help to be given to affected salt works”.
In 2016, the Central authorities determined to shut and restructure the workplace on the suggestion of the Division of Financial Affairs. “This was the one caretaker division specializing in salt specifically, which has been shut, and the business has been left within the palms of god,” mentioned Raval. “We’ve got been demanding that the salt division ought to be activated once more.”
Within the Rann, Karai Ben took a break from raking her crystallised salt within the sharp winter sun, her naked ft white with the saline water she was working in. She pointed to her photo voltaic panels – one of many 12 panels have been destroyed in Cyclone Biparjoy. The damaged panel lay on the cracked desert soil a brief distance away.
“The rains, storms, and water from the Narmada, all are rising through the years,” she mentioned. “However we can’t do something to guard this salt when such conditions occur, we simply pray that subsequent yr, god will give us extra salt.”
This reporting is made potential with help from Report for the World, an initiative of The GroundTruth Venture.
