Meteorological drought happens when an area gets a small fraction of the rain it is supposed to receive in a certain period. Hydrological drought happens when the water underground, in what is called the water table, falls below a certain level. Handpumps, which draw water up to the surface, no longer work and wells dry up. People may not see hydrological drought, because it all happens underground, but it is very serious.

Agricultural drought happens when, because of very low rainfall, or less water underground, farmers can’t grow crops. This is very serious indeed, because this means the farmers can’t feed themselves or anyone else.

Balangir had received no rainfall that summer. Not a drop. Behera, as the Collector, was responsible for officially declaring the district as drought-hit, and sending a report to the government in Bhubaneshwar, the state capital.

Behera looked at the rainfall figures on his desk. He looked at the hydrological report, which showed that the water underground was drying up, too. Very soon, farmers would not be able to grow their crops, if there were no rains. The government has to help farmers and people in an area hit by drought.

Slowly, carefully, Behera prepared his report on his computer, tapping the keys two or three at a time. He was telling the government that his district was hit by drought, and the government must help.

But he also mentioned something else.

Behera wrote that while the whole of Balangir was hit by drought, a small area, by some miracle, had not been affected. The water table there was normal, and farmers there would not need government help.

That area, on Behera’s map, was in a rough circle, and covered Devi Hills, all the Gond villages including Deogan, and dozens of other Gond villages across the Tel.

No government help would come to these villages. That was what the Important Person had told Behera to write.

The Gonds were on their own.

7

JULY-SEPTEMBER

Afterwards, when all these events were past and had become part of a story told and re-told, the strangest episode, according to Korok himself, was when he appeared on TV. Briefly, as extra in his own story, but that is how TV works.

And so one morning in July, around when the people realised the rains might never come this summer and some of the protesters had returned to their villages for a bit, Korok was sweeping his yard before looking for a missing chicken when the mahji visited him. The mahji by now had the look of a man being swept along by events he could not control, and so no news surprised him.