Unbearable water woes continue to haunt villagers and animals on the fringes of and deep inside the forests of Chamarajanagar district.
As the scorching sun dries up all sources of water, intensifying the drought by depleting the ground water table further, dried up borewells and lakes and incessant power shortages have left villagers with no choice but to migrate.
The members of the Cabinet sub-committee on drought, headed by four ministers, were mute spectators to the villagers’ water woes during their visit on Monday. “When we do not have water to drink, how can we keep our livestock alive? There are no solutions to this situation,” a villager said.
Jobs not helpful
The district officials told the ministers that they have taken steps to provide villagers with jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. To this, a tribe member, from Doddane in M.M. Hills, said that these jobs do not help them fetch even a pot of drinking water. The Beda Jangama tribe say that they have to walk on parched, dust-strewn roads through the M.M. Hills forest to get muddy water from tribal settlements which they later store and filter for drinking and cooking.
Midday meals
Though the schools in this region are ready to serve midday meals, they have no water for cooking. The midday meal for poor children is being served in this area even during the summer holidays. Owing to the acute shortage of drinking water, the scheme is about to hit a dead end in the region. Tribesmen said their children were suffereing as they had come to depend on the midday meals.
Stringent forest laws
Since the area is part of a protected forest, stringent forest laws prohibit the digging of borewells, laying of roads and providing power connections. The villagers say that it is very difficult to get water even from borwells that have been dug up to a depth of 700 feet in this region. They have been forced to trek deep into the forest to find a stream to take a bath. For them, donkeys are the only means of transportation as their hamlets are 6-7 kms far away from main roads.
Measures adopted
However, the district administration and Zilla Panchayat have taken up efforts to tackle the water problems in this area. They made arrangements for the supply of water through tankers and private borewells. The State government has provide Rs.50 lakh to each taluk to take up relief works. According to the district administration, it has Rs. 7.50 crore as relief fund which will be utilised to tackle the drought situation.
