KARNATAKA: Though Malnad receives copious rains, it is in very intense spells over a brief period. The local terrain is rocky and steep, so the run-off is swift. The water does not percolate as the red soil does not retain water. And given the borewell fever, the ground water has receded to 500 feet in most places.
Narasimha Parvata in Agumbe gives rise to five rivers—Malapahari, Nandini, Nalini, Malathi and Seetha. According to Vishwanath Bayer, a former gram panchayat member of Agumbe, the dip in rainfall is not a sudden development.
The streams, flowing through the forests had been growing thinner for more than a decade now. The growing population and receding forest cover have led to a rise in the local temperature and monsoons have become progressively freaky, he says.
Erratic rains, drying rivers and successive droughts have led to significant changes in the crop pattern in Malnad. Paddy growers are shifting to areca and ginger. Though the shift from food to commercial crops is a common feature, water scarcity is one of the reasons.
T R Krishnamurthy, 55, a farmer in Marahalli village, turned his three-acre paddy field into an areca farm as the stream that used to flow through his village has rapidly shrunk over five years. The water from his borewell is not enough for a water-intensive crop. “Sixty per cent of the paddy fields in our village have made way for areca.
Many farmers have even left their fields uncultivated due to the water problem and non-availability of farm labour,” he said.