Maharashtra’s Konkan area has registered its first farmer suicide.
Pandurang Kole, a mango farmer of Hindle village in Sindhudurg district committed suicide on Sunday. Kole was in a state of depression for the last one month owing to the failure of the mango crop due to unseasonal rain and rise in temperature. “He had taken a loan for mango farming and the whole crop got damaged,” his elder son Haresh Kole told The Hindu over the phone. He added that the entire district was suffering due to the unseasonal rains.
According to government officials, Pandurang had a loan of Rs.1.75 lakh.
The Hindu on March 22, 2015 had carried a report (Rain lays low Konkan’s Alphonso) highlighting the plight of rain-hit mango farmers in the Konkan.
‘No suicide note found’
Additional District Collector of Sindhudurg Ravindra Savalkar told The Hindu that no suicide note was found.
