The Hindu : National : Bid to salvage crops

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 27, 2005

National

National

Bid to salvage crops

R. Krishnamoorthy

Desperate farmers pluck out paddy saplings

OVERWHELMED: Water from the Cauvery over a causeway at Uttamarseeli near Tiruchi on Wednesday. — Photo: M. Moorthy

TIRUCHI: As the level of inundated floodwater along the embankments of the Cauvery river started receding gradually on Wednesday, farmers were trying to salvage their damaged crops in sheer desperation.

At Amoor village, farmers were pumping out standing water from a banana plantation using pump sets. Yet after hours of toil, they realised that they could not make much of a difference to the stagnation.

TO SAVE THE CROP: Farmers with uprooted paddy saplings near Vathalai in Tiruchi district. — Photo: R.M. Rajarathinam

There was no outlet in sight to divert the pumped-out water. Also, the level of water on the fields kept equalising with that of the nearby irrigation channel in full flow, adjacent to the swollen river.

READY: Boats of the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation being kept ready at Srirangam to be used in rescue missions. — Photo: M. Moorthy

Swathes of submerged banana crops have added to the woes of the farmers already steeped in debt. The farmers, in their eagerness to make the most of the adequate water availability prior to the floods, had invested heavily in a "do-or-die" gamble. No different was the condition of the paddy fields. In fields close to Vathalai, some farmers were plucking out the paddy saplings which were just transplanted hoping to find buyers for replanting them in fields elsewhere. Betelvine in Thottiam area has also suffered extensive damage due to water logging.

The Public Works Department had kept a watch on weak bunds all through Tuesday and plugged the breaches at Vathalai and Manjakorai in time to save the villages from total deluge. At these places, the discharge into the Cauvery was combined with the runaway water from the Kattaru originating in the Kolli Hills, causing seepage from the bunds into the roads.