With the southeast monsoon being declared a failure and the northeast monsoon yet to fully kick in although a month has passed — a rare phenomenon according to experts — Karnataka appears to be heading for a prolonged drought and its severity is expected to be well-pronounced by January.Normally, northeast monsoon compensates for the failure of southwest monsoon, which means farmers would have a decent rabi season even if the kharif crop is destroyed.But experts suggest that northeast monsoon too could fail, a first in the recent past although there have been similar instances since rainfall began to be officially gauged in the 1930s.“The situation is unprecedented as the failure of northwest monsoon has meant a 67% rain deficit in October,” said MN Thimme Gowda, professor and head of agro-meteorology, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK. “It could lead to an unprecedented crisis in terms of low food production, water scarcity, and power shortage.”Dry weather also had political connotations and intensified a slugfest between Congress and the opposition parties. While BJP has set up 17 teams to survey drought across the state from Friday, JD(S) has called a meeting to chart out a statewide agitation to protest distress in the farm sector.“The government is astonishingly indifferent towards the drought issue,” said former BJP’s Ashwath Narayan, MLA and former DyCM. “It is in contrast to our government, headed by BS Yediyurappa. When floods hit in 2019, Yediyurappa immediately granted Rs 10,000 per family without waiting for relief from the Centre. The government should launch relief operations without delay. We will highlight this during our yatra.” However, chief minister Siddaramaiah has lampooned BJP for launching a tour when the Centre is dithering on granting relief. “It has been almost a month since we sought Rs 17,901 crore in central relief for drought, but not a single rupee has been granted. State BJP leaders should convince their central leaders to grant relief instead of embarking on a politically motivated tour,” said the CM.While the rain deficit during the southwest monsoon season stood at an overall 27% (August recorded a 73% deficiency), the northeast monsoon has begun with a 67% deficit. This is expected to result in a 45% dip in food production.“While we are taking all possible measures and helping farmers, we are also encouraging them to opt for drought-resistant crops,” said agriculture director T Putra.Among other measures, the animal husbandry department has been granted funds to ensure farmers grow fodder-based crops so that the fodder shortage can be addressed and farmers get some income out of it.