AGUMBE: Near Theerthahalli in Karnataka’s Shivamogga district, a 9-foot Shiva linga stands on the river bed of the Tunga. It used to be submerged for most of the year. But now you see the entire linga and a good three feet of rock beneath it. There is no river. “This is the first time we have seen the Tunga go dry,” says Dinesh, a local resident.
Thirthahalli taluk is home to Agumbe, once known as the Cherrapunji of the South. But like that place in Meghalaya, it has ceded its title of the wettest place to Hulikal, also in the same taluk. Hulikal has about 8,000 mm of rainfall annually. Agumbe has slid to 7,700 mm.
Rainfall in the thousands of millimetre would sound like manna from heaven to people in Anantapur or Ramanathapuram but it still is a shock to travel to Agumbe and see the rocky entrails of the Tunga. Karnataka’s drought is nibbling at even places blessed by the clouds.
The Tunga is not the only river to have given up the ghost in this year of a ceaseless seamless summer. Just 5 km away at Nadathi village, the Kushavati river has vanished, its expansive valley sweltering in 38 degree Celsius and the river bed looking more like a highway of sand.
Here, too, we see what we see in desperate valleys. The tubewells are dry and the riverside dug into sand by people to find their lost lifeline. Holes bored into the dry river bed cough up a little water. The more fortunate village may have a small pond.
Such ponds and borewells are a common sight on the Malathi, Seetha and Varahi riverbeds in Shivamogga. The MLA of Thirthahalli, Kimmane Ratnakar, a Congress man, says there are 1,000 such borewells in the river beds in his constituency which includes Agumbe.
In an average year, Thirthahalli taluk receives about 3,288 mm of rainfall. Last year, it recorded just 1,970 mm, a 40 per cent deficit, and the taluk was declared as a drought-hit area for the first time since 2002. When in drought, the default response of the administration is to go dig a borewell.
So, following are the details of the administration’s alacrity reeled off by Kimmane: In all 143 borewells were sunk and 150 more sanctioned. The situation was urgent enough to make the MLA work on a Sunday and chair a meeting of the Drinking Water Task Force. While the digging is frantic, there is also confidence. “All it needs is one good year,” said Kimmane, adding, “Let us pray.”