Marginal farmer Koosa Suresh committed suicide on Saturday by consuming pesticide following crop loss due to brown plant hopper attack on his paddy crop.
The 35-year-old farmer of Chintamadaka village in Siddipet mandal, owned 1.15 acres of land and had dug three bore wells which had failed. Not losing hope he had dug one more bore well recently which proved a success.
This year he had planted paddy in his field hoping to clear his debts. But luck did not favour him and his paddy crop was lost because of attack by brown plant hopper (BPH).
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Depressed by the situation, Suresh took the extreme step on Saturday by consuming pesticide while his wife Shailaja was working few yards away. Busy in her work she did not notice him and by the time she noticed and called their relatives it was too late.
Mounting debt
Suresh was shifted to a hospital at Mutabad, about 15 kilometres away, where the doctors declared his brought dead.
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“Suresh’s elder daughter Chaitanya died of electrocution in 2011 when she was six-year-old, which had affected him badly, but he did not neglect the family of four including mother, wife and another daughter Sharanya. Now they will become orphans with lone earning member ending his life. I do not know exactly how much debt he was having but it may cross about ₹ 4 lakh,” said Koosa Narasimhulu, Suresh’s cousin, who lives nearby.
Leaders of the CPI (M) led by M. Revanth consoled the family at the government hospital at Siddipet where the body was shifted for post-mortem.
This was the second incident of suicide by a farmer in Chintamadaka, incidentally the native village of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Vattipally Nagamani (35) had committed suicide by hanging herself at home. She took the extreme step due to the pressure of debts, according to family members. Her family has reportedly received a compensation amount of ₹ 4 lakh but not under farmer’s suicide category.