ERODE: Hundreds of farmers from Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) irrigation areas on Saturday engaged in a sit-in protest at Perundurai in Erode district, urging the state government to release water from the Lower Bhavani Dam. Following the farmers' protest, water was released from the dam on Saturday evening.
According to sources, water from the Lower Bhavani Dam is usually released for LBP irrigation (first zone) on August 15 every year. However, water was not released on Saturday because the dam's water level is low due to a lack of sufficient rainfall during the previous monsoon.
Despite knowing that the water level in the dam is low, a section of farmers in the Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) have been engaged in various protests for over half a month, demanding the release of life water to save their standing crops and to avoid drought.
Officials had previously assured that steps would be taken to release water from the dam by Thursday. However, water was not released. Following this, farmers began a sit-in protest in Sathirampudhur area on the Perundurai-Erode road on Friday night. Their protest continued on Saturday as well.
With the dam currently holding 6.6 TMC of water, protesters urged that at least 2 tmc of water be released to save the standing crops. Therefore, officials from the district administration and the water resources department held consultations on the matter. Subsequently, a decision was made on Saturday evening to release water from the dam.
Following this, the farmers called off the protest.
C Nallasamy, president of Lower Bhavani Irrigation Farmers Welfare Association, said, "We are calling off the protest as the government has ordered the release of water, accepting our demand."
"Water will be released for LBP irrigation for 15 days from Saturday evening," a senior WRD official said.
On Saturday, the water level of the dam was 58.22 feet against the full level of 105 feet. The storage level was 6.6 tmc (20.41 %) against the full storage of 32.8 tmc, and the inflow was 567 cusecs.