Mumbai: Police fired at thousands of rioting farmers in western India to stop them from damaging a dam during a protest against a water shortage, killing one of them, authorities said yesterday.

About 5,000 people gathered in the remote Chargarh village in Maharashtra state, about 650 km northeast of the state capital Mumbai, on Monday evening to protest against a shortage of water, they said.

The crowd turned violent and threatened to break down the walls and sluice gates of a local dam.

Police said the protesters hurled stones at them and tried to snatch away their weapons when they sought to control the mob, forcing them to open fire.

"We tried to control them with batons and tear gas shells, but the mob attacked us and tried to snatch our weapons. We then opened fire in which one villager was killed," local police chief Niket Kaushik said.

India's water usage is among the least efficient in the world and, as a result, millions in the countryside struggle for water even when it is not summer.

Villagers, especially in arid states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, walk for miles for a pitcher of drinking water, and riots over water are not uncommon.