Landscapes of Loss: The Story of an Indian Drought

"Maharashtra, India s richest state by GDP, has its eyes set on becoming the country s first trillion-dollar economy by 2025. At the same time, Marathwada a historically backward part of the state, adjoining the distressed Vidarbha region and home to the world heritage sites of the Ajanta and Ellora caves has seen a surge in farmer suicides. At the heart of the crisis is a cyclical drought that has persisted for almost a decade. Multiple relief packages and loan waivers have not reversed the trend. On the contrary, the stories of dystopia grow more tragic every year as thousands of farmer families flee to the big cities, while those who stay back are plagued by bad credit and crop loss. Landscapes of Loss tells the story of Marathwada with its stunning basalt hills, scorched brown earth, the flaming reds and pinks the locals wear through the accounts of its people: marginal farmers, Dalits, landless labourers, farm widows, and children. It lays bare the complex factors that have brought the region to this pass a story representative, in many ways, of the agrarian unrest in large parts of rural India. "