Udaipur, One Of India's Most Famous Attractions, Shrivels Under Drought

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"Where the waters used to lap at the entrance to the Lake Palace Hotel, today camels lazily graze on the green scrub that covers the empty lake- bed. Water buffalo wallow in the last few puddles. A car from the city taking a short cut across the dry lake bed sends up a cloud of dust. Wild horses have come down from the hills to graze, and nose up curiously as you pass.

India's most famous lake has almost disappeared, leaving the Lake Palace, usually an island surrounded by shimmering water, all but stranded in a green field instead. This is where they filmed the lake scenes for the James Bond film Octopussy. The lakeshore, with its seemingly endless vista of palaces, has long been considered one of India's great sights. And the Lake Palace, where they can arrange a candle-lit dinner for two on a table moored on its own tiny pontoon in the middle of the lake to which the waiters bring the food by motor launch, has long been said to be the world's most romantic hotel.

Udaipur is one of India's most important tourist destinations. It is known as the City of Lakes, but without its main lake, it is sadly depleted. There is a little water still left, and they still ferry guests out to the Lake Palace by motor launch, but the magic is somehow spoilt when you can see a car driving up to the hotel entrance across the dry lake-bed a short distance away.

The drying up of Lake Pichola, the city's main lake, is just one of the most visible signs of the terrible droughts that have plagued India in recent years. This week, the Archaeological Survey of India admitted what historians have been alleging for some time is true: that the minarets of the Taj Mahal have begun to tilt. Experts are warning that it is being caused by the drying up of the river Yamuna next to the Taj, which is endangering the monument's foundations. In the south of India, the state of Andhra Pradesh has seen an unprecedented rise in suicides by farmers unable to pay off loans because the drought has ruined their crops. And in the Rajasthan countryside around Udaipur, the droughts have taken their toll as well. At least 44 villagers died from starvation because of failed crops this year. Last year it was 69. And human rights activists found nine cases in which families had sold their daughters into marriage in exchange for as little as 5,000 rupees (£60) to buy food."

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=577143