Who is responsible for Telangana's drought-like situation?
HYDERABAD: For the first time since its formation, Telangana is witnessing a drought-like situation. The standing crops in lakhs of acres have withered in the current Rabi season.
While Agriculture officials are yet to start enumerating the losses that the farmers have suffered, this agrarian crisis is likely to have an impact on voters in the Lok Sabha elections, which will be held in Telangana on May 13. Though the ruling Congress and the Opposition BRS have different views on the reasons that led to the present situation, both parties have admitted that there is a drought-like situation in the state.
But what are the reasons behind this drought-like situation? According to irrigation experts, the drought situation in Godavari river basin is due to lack of proper planning while in Krishna river basin, it is because of nature’s fury.
Water deficit
The Krishna river is facing serious water deficit for the first time in 40 years. The rains in the Krishna catchment area were very less and farmers in Maharashtra and Karnataka too are facing problems, an official said and recalled that the BRS government declared a crop holiday in areas under the Nagarjuna Sagar Project in Kharif season. The Karnataka government also announced a crop holiday in areas under Narayanpura project.
“Even after that, farmers raised Rabi crops and no one could protect them due to insufficient inflows into Krishna river,” another official said.
“There were sufficient inflows in Godavari river this year. Even during December, January and February, the inflows into Godavari were around 10,000 to 15,000 cusecs per day, mostly from Pranahitha river. If the government had properly planned by noticing the impending danger to the agriculture sector well in advance, the crops would not have withered away,” he added.
The main reason for not providing the water in Godavari basin was sinking of piers of Medigadda barrage. However, an official pointed out that the structures of Annaram and Sundilla barrages were “not bad”. Other government officials and ministers have pointed out there is visible erosion of CC blocks in Annaram and Sundilla, and the same technical problems that plague Medigadda are also present in these two barrages. A team from the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) recently inspected all three barrages.
“The government should have constructed a cofferdam 15 km away from Medigadda and diverted water to the intake of a nearby pump house. If this had been done, officials would have been in a position to operate two pump houses and lift around 3,5000 cusecs per day as the inflows into Godavari were 15,000 cusecs per day. This would have been helpful in filling Yellampalli, Mid Manair and Mallannasagar. Water could have been diverted even to SRSP stage-2 to protect around two lakh acres in parts of erstwhile Nalgonda district,” another official explained.
“But now the inflows into Godavari have reduced to 1,500 cusecs per day and the standing crops in north Telangana have already withered. At this point of time, the government is unable to do anything to bail out farmers,” sources said.
Return of bad old days
The drought-like situation is severe in erstwhile Nalgonda and Karimnagar districts and parts of Jangaon, Nizamabad and others. The bad old days of farmers digging borewells and hiring tankers to protect their standing crops have returned this Rabi season.
“We are facing a drought-like situation for the first time in 10 years,” several farmers in erstwhile Nalgonda district said.
Though BRS chief and Opposition leader K Chandrasekhar Rao has blamed the Congress government for pushing the farmers towards drought, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageshwara Rao allege that the BRS, which was in power till the first week of December, 2023, was responsible for the present situation as it allowed the neighbouring states to draw water from Nagarjuna Sagar, where the water level touched rock bottom this year.
Farmers not alerted
According to experts, the main reason behind the present crisis is lack of planning by the Agriculture department. The authorities failed to provide information well in advance to farmers in some districts that there would be no water supply. They should have advised them not to sow paddy. But during first two months of Rabi season, the official machinery and political parties were busy with the Assembly elections and they focused less on the impending danger. After the elections, the new government prioritised other issues, a farmer alleged.
However, a Siddipet-based agriculture official said that the farmers should first find out if groundwater is available or not before starting the process of cultivating paddy. They should not raise crops and then demand water from the government, he added.
Utilising the situation, BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao toured Nalgonda and Jangaon districts recently.
The very next day, the government released a small quantity of water from Nagarjuna Sagar for drinking water purpose. Ahead of Rao’s visit to Karimnagar, the government released water from Gayatri pump house to save standing crops.
On Tuesday, former irrigation minister T Harish Rao demanded that the water should be released from Mallannasagar to Kudavelly within 24 hours to save standing crops. Else, the BRS would release water from Mallannasagar, he said. Within hours, the government released around 800 cusecs of water to give a last wet to standing crops in around 15,000 acres.
Less rainy days due to cloudburst
This year, the rainfall has been good. But the rainy days — supposed to be spread over 120 days — were reduced to 25 to 30 days, due to cloudburst. Heavy rain in just a few days will not be useful to farmers as it would run off quickly
Crops have withered in lakhs of acres. Officials are yet to start the enumeration
Krishna river received very less inflows almost after 40 years
Godavari water could not be diverted due to sinking of piers of Medigadda
2,822.512 tmcft - The Godavari water that went waste into sea from June, 2023 to till date
62.608 tmcft - The Krishna water that went waste into sea