Paddy fields dry up, farmers leave home to find work

Chandrapur: The paddy fields around Bormala, a village with population of over 1,500 in a far corner of Saoli tehsil, lay barren as none of the farmers has dared to take the crop this year due to lack of rain. Having only what is left of last year’s yield to eat and no work in their fields, most of the men and women go to neighbouring Gadchiroli to work as farm labourers or under masons at construction sites. Though the administration has calculated anewari as 49 paise, the state government has not listed Bormala among villages hit by drought this year.
A few farmers in village had planted paddy nursery following good rains at the onset of monsoon. As the village received no rains later in the season, nobody tried replanting. The remains of the dried nursery are being used as cattle fodder, said Netaji Choudhari pointing at his 15 acres of barren stretch.
Sharad Damal (22) too owns 15 acres but the farm was not tilled due to lack of rains. He and his father cross Vainganga river every day to work as farm labourers in neighbouring Gadchiroli district. Similarly, over 500 villagers leave their homes to work as farm hands or labourers at construction sites. Many families have migrated to distant places for entire season to work as farm labourers, said Damal.
As per official statistics, Bormala has 741 hectares agricultural land. The paddy nursery was on 49 hectares. The entire crop was lost to the drought. The village is facing water scarcity and the ponds have dried up. Villagers fetch water for drinking and domestic use from their wells which are fast drying up. The cattle are taken to Vainganga river, which is 3km from the village, for washing and drinking purpose only once a day.
Nearly all the villages in this paddy stretch are going through similar ordeal. MLA from Brahmapuri and deputy leader of Congress in state assembly, Vijay Wadettiwar, led a team of scribes to these drought-hit villages. People in other villages like Nifandra, Kasrgaon, Chikli, Gevra, Nimgaon, Akahapur in Saoli tehsil and Gunjewahi, Khari, Alesur, Mainpur, Mendha, Gatbori etc in adjacent Sindewahi tehsil narrated their woes to the team.
Wadettiwar said there are 37 villages in Brahmapuri tehsil, 28 in Sindewahi and 22 in Saoli tehsils, which fall in his constituency, where farmers have not gone for replanting. “In Pomburna and Mul tehsils coming under finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s constituency, 38 villages are reeling under drought. But the government has not included a single village from Chandrapur district in the list of drought-hit villages,” said Wadettiwar.
Wadettiwar informed that 19 farmers in the paddy belt have committed suicide this year. He urged farmers to not to commit suicide and said the Congress will corner the government over the agrarian crises in the winter session of state legislature. He also announced to organize mass marriage ceremony for 500 marriageable couples from farmer families facing hardship, in April next year at Saoli.