CHENNAI: Parched and cracked fields, withered crops and dying farmers – there are only 10 days left for the upcoming Pongal festival, but there is precious little to harvest, much less to celebrate for thousands of farmers and farmhands in Tamil Nadu.
The irony is unmistakable, as the severe drought is coming right after the unprecedented floods of the last monsoon during which the State received enough water to meet its needs for two-three years.
Acknowledging the gravity of the situation prevailing in the State due to monsoon failure, the effects of which have been accentuated by the meagre share it received from Cauvery water, the State government has directed collectors to submit the status of the standing crops in all districts except Chennai.
This assessment is necessary under the new guidelines of the Centre, which mandates a direct status check on the standing crops to be examined in 10 percent of villages.
“To monitor this process, committees comprising ministers and senior IAS officers would be immediately constituted and would tour the districts till January 9 and submit their report to the State government on January 10. Based on this, a declaration about the impact of drought would be notified,” said Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Tuesday.
This was decided in two back-to-back meetings he chaired at the Secretariat during the day. “I assure the farmers that the relief assistance for the crop loss would be given immediately after the high-level committee submits its report.
Apart from this, the farmers who had insured their crops would get claims from insurance companies,” Panneerselvam added in a statement.
The announcement came at a time when farmers associations, backed by opposition parties, have been laying siege to collectorates seeking to declare their districts as drought-hit.
The All Farmers Associations Coordination Committee had announced a road roko on Thursday, which, however, was deferred after the Chief Minister assured them of all efforts during a meeting with its leaders at the Secretariat on Tuesday.
This has been a particularly tough year for the farmers in the State, with both monsoon and the Cauvery water sharing agreement failing to deliver when it mattered.
The north-east monsoon was abject: at 62 percent deficit, this is the worst year in over a century.
All that Tamil Nadu received this year was 168 mm rains, second only to 163.5 mm recorded way back in 1876. As many as 21 of the 32 districts have received less than 40 per cent rains. What made this hurt the farmers is the failure to realise Tamil Nadu’s share from the Cauvery.
In this season between June and December, the State received only 66.60 tmc ft – only about a third of what was awarded by the Cauvery Tribunal.
The distress in agrarian belts has led to an alarming number of farmer deaths. In Nagapattinam alone, there have been 39 deaths so far.
However, only two of them are suicides while the rest were mostly heart attacks, due yet another thankless season. But, desensitised by cycles of agrarian distress, a death or a few dozen does not perhaps matter if it is not a suicide.