RAVAGED: Fields on the banks of the Krishna damaged in the floods.

BELGAUM: The destruction caused by floods in the district, particularly on the banks of the Krishna, greets visitors, rather painfully. The devastation runs across 54,724 hectares of agricultural land. The damage to various crops, including sugarcane, the major commercial crop of this district known as the "sugar bowl" of Karnataka, has been assessed at Rs. 333.97 crores. Soya bean, paddy, sunflower and horticultural produce have also suffered extensive damage.

Floods submerged vast tracts of low-lying areas on the banks of the Krishna and caused extensive damage to private and public properties in Chikkodi, Athani and Raibag taluks. Belgaum, Gokak, Hukkeri, Khanapur and Bailhongal taluks also suffered heavy damages owing to floods in the Markandeya and the Ghataprabha. Though the Krishna was in spate allegedly owing to sudden release of water from the Koyana reservoir in Maharashtra, the swelling of the Markandeya and the Ghataprabha is being attributed to incessant rainfall in their catchment areas. Ramdurg and Saundatti taluks, which largely escaped the floods, also underwent hardship owing to the release of surplus water from the Malaprabha dam at Navilteerth in Saundatti taluk last week.

Damage assessment

As per the assessment carried out by teams, the damage is extensive in Athani taluk where crops grown on 27,071.24 hectares of land and worth Rs. 155.68 crores have been lost. This is followed by Chikkodi where the crop loss has been put at Rs. 66.20 crores. In Belgaum taluk, crops grown on 2,160.57 hectares of land and worth Rs. 8.12 crores has been lost while in Hukkeri crops grown on 998.98 hectares of land and worth Rs. 3.74 crores have been destroyed in the floods. In Khanapur, the crop loss has been estimated at Rs. 97.28 lakhs, in Bailhongal Rs. 18.01 lakhs, Gokak Rs. 41.25 crores and Raibag Rs. 46.21 crores.

According to the district administration, as against the total crop loss of Rs. 333.98 crores, the compensation payable under the Calamity Relief Fund norms is Rs. 25.76 crores only.

The administration, which initially decided to wait till the Centre considers the State's request to award relief on the line of the quantum of aid made available to tsunami-hit States, started distributing compensation for crop losses recently.

It is noteworthy that the State Government has almost doubled the amount of compensation by contributing an equal amount to what was already available under the CRF norms.

Subsequently, compensation is being distributed at the rate of Rs. 2,000 for a hectare of rain-fed agricultural land, Rs. 5,000 for a hectare of irrigated land and Rs. 8,000 for an hectare of horticultural land.

However, the compensation is limited to only two hectares, it is said.

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