MITHI: Two more infants died of malnutrition in Thar, taking the death toll to 197 in less than three months in the drought-hit region, DawnNews reported on Sunday.

Thar district is spread over 22,000 square kilometers, with a population of about 1.5 million people. At an average, every third year is a drought year. The region faces famine at least once every decade.

More than 80 per cent of the people’s livelihood is dependent on rain-fed agriculture and livestock. In fact, livestock, fully or partially, contributes to the economy of every household in the district.

The dry spell in Thar — which has been ongoing over the last three years (2012-2014) — continues to deprive local growers of their main crops: cluster beans and millet.

The prolonged drought conditions have forced different community groups, especially those who maintain small landholdings and family livestock, to migrate to neighbouring areas in search of livelihood.

Read: Qaim dismisses child deaths from Thar famine

SIndh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has however repeatedly maintained that the deaths are due to maternity related complications, and not from hunger.

“Pregnancies are handled by unskilled women. Newborns get exposed to different ailments and when such children get seriously ill they are brought to hospitals,” he had said recently, adding that the Mithi district hospital was the best in the whole region after Karachi and Hyderabad.

“It is fully equipped and provide all facilities and even patients from Umerkot, Badin and Mirpurkhas reach this hospital,” the chief minister had said.

Read: Doctors providing assistance asked to leave Thar

Explore: Thar: Drought or disaster?