The Hindu : Front Page : Noyyal farmers may miss yet another cultivation season

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 19, 2007
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Noyyal farmers may miss yet another cultivation season

Karthik Madhavan

— File Photo

Farmers do not want it: Untreated effluents are discharged from dyeing units to the Orathupalayam reservoir.

ERODE: Farmers love water, eagerly await their release from dams, and would like to have as much of it as possible for agriculture. This is the conventional wisdom.

But ask the 30,000 farmers in the Noyyal ayacut area and they will tell you in no uncertain terms that they do not want water and would do better without it for cultivation. In fact, they are afraid of water. Their fears have to do with their bitter experiences. They have suffered for a decade at the hands of industries in the export-driven town of Tirupur.

Untreated effluents discharged from dyeing, bleaching and other processing industries in the town have polluted the Noyyal river and the Orathapalayam dam across it.

As a consequence, in 10 years 80,000 acres of land dependent on the river has not had any farming worth mentioning, for the lands have lost their fecundity. Because of the pollution, farmers who used to harvest between 2,000 kg and 2,500 kg of paddy an acre leave the land fallow. About 1.6 lakh tonnes of paddy that the 80,000 acres would have produced in 10 years is lost.

This year too there is water in the Orathapalayam dam, thanks to copious rain in the catchment areas in the Velliangiri hills and neighbouring areas. The farmers, however, do not want it.

V.K. Ganesan, head of the Noyyal Ayacut Farmers’ Association, says they would rather go without cultivation. If they fail to cultivate, they will be missing the samba season for the eleventh time.

Mr. Ganesan says that by taking up cultivation the farmers would only incur losses, as this time too the water is polluted.

Given the decade-long trouble, farmers themselves buy rice for their consumption.

The farmers now await a favourable verdict from the Madras High Court, which is hearing a case filed by them against the pollution.

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