Many trains pull into Latur's railroad station, but none is as eagerly awaited as the train that pulls into the parched town in the dead of the night.

That train - called "Jaldoot" or the Messenger of Water - brings millions of liters of the precious liquid that the drought-plagued central Indian district so desperately needs.

Latur, with its ravaged farmland and thirsty families, has become the unfortunate poster child for the blistering drought that is hurting tens of millions of people across 13 Indian states. It's the main city in Maharashtra state's Marathwada region, where three districts - Beed, Latur and Osmanabad - have been devastated by two consecutive droughts.