CHAMARAJANAGAR: As you approach the outskirts of Dantahalli village, the stench of rotting carcasses is unbearable. Cattle are having the worst of a cruel drought in this once evergreen region of Chamarajanagar district, 170 km from Bengaluru.
The Cauvery lies dry 4 km from Dantahalli. The crops have long been lost, for the second consecutive year. In the village, people say not a day passes without their cattle dropping dead. Fallow fields have become burial grounds. Who will conduct a funeral for a cow in this drought? The carcasses are dragged to the fields and dumped into dried, disused wells.
Everywhere in Kowdahalli hobli of Hanur in Kollegal taluk, fields have come to resemble burial grounds. As our photographer positions himself to capture the scene, a young boy picks up the desiccated carcass of a cow by its horns and holds it up for a poignant frame.
"It was my favourite cow. She died a week ago," says Mahesh.
In K Shettahalli village, a fodder truck rumbled up the dusty path, and villagers rushed to it, thinking it to be the vehicle of government officials and hoping to plead for compensation.
Venkata Shetty (70) begs for a visit to the farther edge of the village where the carcasses of three cows are still in early putrefaction. Last week, some women and a cameraman came by to take pictures of the dead cattle but no one has turned up to pay compensation, he said.
Most of the cattle lost to the drought this summer have been milch cows, the milk from which used to be sold to the dairy at Kowdahalli. One villager said he lost 20 cows in the past two weeks. Ramakka, carrying her granddaughter on her shoulders, insists we write down that she lost four.
She invites us to tea but is apologetic that she can serve only black tea, for there is no milk in K Shettahalli right now. "I can put in some jiggery," she offers.
Most of the households here used to earn around Rs 2,000 a month as a second income from milk and around Rs 10,000 per truckload from selling cow dung once in three months.
The current trend of cow love is not yet applicable to the government’s compensation system. Umesh, who still has 70 cows standing, says the state government gives Rs 5,000 as compensation for sheep or goats lost but not cows.
We caught up with Krishna Shetty who was waiting at a government-run goshala hoping to cammandeer a fodder truck. "We take the cattle out to graze in the Dinahalli and Meenyam forest. But the forest is dry. Every day, 8-10 cattle die in the forest,” he says.
The district administration has purchased 8,500 tonnes of maize stover to feed the cattle lodged in goshalas. With over 2500 heads of cattle penned in at the 20 cattle-feeding centres, the goshalas require 70-80 tonnes of fodder.
The animal husbandry department estimates the total livestock figure in the state at 2.84 lakh heads, not counting the animals kept by communities living on the forest fringes. There’s no figure for cattle deaths yet.
Deputy director Balasundar clarifies that government orders on compensation for cattle deaths have not been received yet. At the panchayat office, Kumara Naik has come with his mother Gowri Bai seeking compensation for their dead cattle but returns empty-handed. "We are scared that more of our cattle will die if there are wild winds during pre-monsoon showers," he said.
Though the administration has opened more than 20 goshalas across Chamarajanagar district, many farmers don't want to take the risk of sending their cattle 10-12 km away in this scorching heat.
Why villagers miss Veerappan
CHAMARAJANAGAR: It is one of the anomalies of nature that this district is drought-prone despite having a 49 per cent forest cover that includes the Biligiriranga hills, Bandipur, M M Hills and wildlife sancturies straddling Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
But then, the district recorded 375 mm less than its normal rainfall of 760.3 mm. Kollegal and Yalandur taluks fared worse, notching up deficits of 411 mm and 475 mm respectively. The Gundal, Suvaravathi and Chikkahole dams are dry and water holes in the forests have dried up too. Last month, forest fires broke out as well, making things worse.
The drought has been such that the villagers’s thoughts turn to Veerappan, the forest bandit who trod the local wilds until he was brought down by the forces of two states. "Never did we face problems or encounter resistance from forest personnel for grazing our cattle in the forest," said one villager.
Following Veerappan's death, forest personnel fenced off the forest boundaries, stepped up vigil and shooed away villagers from bringing their cattle to graze in the forest. "My friends were arrested and sent to jail. They are still fighting the case,” remembered villager Shiva of Dantahalli.
Japamallai, a panchayat member from Marathalli, said this has been the worst drought in 50 years. "With eight of out 12 borewells dried up, we are running to officers to sanction new borewells. Private water tanks are making merry as they charge Rs 3,000 for 6,000 litres," he said.
Water only for VVIPS
The acute water scarcity gripping Chamarajanagar district has forced the Male Mahadeshwara Development Authority to stop renting rooms to devotees who come to the local temple. For the Cauvery has dried up and there’s no water for the pilgrims. The staff at guest houses say can at best spare a bucket of water for VVIP guests.
Boom time for abattoirs
For slaughterhouses the drought has been a good thing though. Farmers think it’s the better of two bad option to sell their cattle to a slaughterhouse than see them die. But market forces rule. One villager, Mahadeva of Ramapura said agents who earlier paid Rs 15,000-20,000 per head of cattle now offer less than Rs 5,000. The condemned cattle are secretaly transported to abattoirs in Tamil Nadu and Kerala avoiding the eye of cow vigilantes.