Over 50 per cent of the crops affected due to drought, says Collector
Tiruvannamalai: Principal Secretary to the government and monitoring officer for the district Jatindranath Swain surveyed paddy and sugarcane crops affected due to drought in Tiruvannamalai district.
Mr. Swain, along with District Collector Prashant M. Wadnere, HR&CE Minister Sevur S. Ramachandran, Kalasapakkam MLA V. Panneerselvam and officials of different departments, visited fields in Polur, Kalasapakkam, Chengam and Thandarampattu blocks where crops have completely withered.
They started their visit from the paddy field of R. Velusamy in Vasur village in Polur block. He owns seven acres and cultivated fine variety of paddy called ‘Sri’ in four acres. What in six months would be a full blown crop was reduced to hay in just three months. The saplings he was raising for replanting in remaining three acres had also dried.
“Since this fine variety of paddy would be bought for good price, say Rs.1,700 a bag, I purchased seeds at ₹900/ a kg in the market. I have pledged family jewellery and spent ₹1.75 lakh for the cultivation. I cannot start cultivation again even if it rains as I have no resource to go back to farming. All that I expect is the government to help me out of this distress,” he said.
S. Pichandi of Then Pallippattu village in Kalasapakkam block said all his 1.5 acres of ‘Bapatla’ variety of paddy crop became dry in three months (while its maturity is at six months). Subramani, whose two acres of paddy crop of ‘Bapatla’ had completely gone dry, was inconsolable.
The same story repeated at the field of Panneer in Solavaram village in Kalasapakkam block where the crops stood testimony to worst drought. He told the team that his two acres of paddy, Bapatla again, had gone dry. Three acres of the same variety of paddy has gone dry in the field of Kasi in Karapattu village.
People of this village said the encroachment of inlet of the village tank made the situation worse. K.N. Appasamy, a village elder, said the inlet was useful in taking the surplus water from the irrigation tank of nearby Mattavettu village. The team also visited dried sugarcane crop in Thullukuttipalayam in Thandarampattu block.
District Collector Mr. Wadnere told the mediapersons ground truthing exercise was carried out in sample panchayats across the district so as to ascertain the state of major crops in the district.
The findings of the exercise would be handed over to the government. Based on further instructions from the government, enumeration would be carried out and compensation awarded.
When asked about the quantum of damage, Mr. Wadnere said they had just finished ground truthing. Enumeration would be carried out later. However with regard to paddy, he said that samba crops were cultivated in 33,820 hectares. Of them, 6,955 ha of crops had withered and 10,353 ha of crops were under the stress of drought. “For other crops we need to assess. But the general observation is more than 50 per cent of all the crops cultivated is affected,” Mr. Wadnere said. After field visit, Mr. Swain held a meeting to review the situation with officials.
