After a gap of two years, the district is going to have excellent ‘pisanam’ paddy season this year as the dams that determine the farming operations of Tirunelveli and neighbouring Thoothukudi districts have comfortable storage, thanks to the so far good north-east monsoon.
More precisely, two of the three major dams of the district – Papanasam and Servalar Dams – have almost reached the maximum permissible storage level.
As the north-east monsoon continues to drench the Western Ghats, most of the dams in Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts have storage sufficient for ‘pisanam’ paddy cultivation likely to be taken up on over 35,000 acres this year. While the Papanasam and the Servalar Dams, the two prime reservoirs of the district, are about to overflow within next 24 hours, the Manimuthar dam, the largest reservoir of the district has only 45% water now. In other words, the dam has 2,028 million cubic feet water against its maximum capacity of 5,511 mcft.
The Papanasam dam, getting over 1,900 cusecs of water, has already touched 142 feet against the maximum capacity of 143 feet. Hence, 1,396 cusecs of water is being discharged from the dam from which water is being released for ‘pisanam’ paddy cultivation for more than 30 days. The discharge of water from this dam will be sustained till the end of ‘pisanam’ paddy season in February next year.
The Servalar dam is also about to reach its full capacity as it has the storage level of 150 feet against the maximum capacity of 156 feet. The only concern is the not so impressive storage level in the Manimuthar dam, which may reach its maximum capacity only if the monsoon becomes so intense before mid-December.
Storage level in all the five dams – Gadana, Ramanadhi, Karuppanadhi, Gundar and Adavinainar dams – in the recently carved out Tenkasi district – so favourable as all these reservoirs that overflowed during this season have excellent storage even after water is being released for ‘pisanam’ paddy cultivation.
The water being released from the Ramanadhi and Gadana dams will benefit the farmers cultivating paddy on 9,923 acres while the water being discharged from Ramanadhi dam will provide succour to paddy to be raised on 4,943 acre.
Since the flow of water in the Chittaar river is excellent so far, all irrigation tanks between Courtallam and Surandai are almost full, thanks to the timely desilting of irrigation tanks and supply channels done by Tirunelveli Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish, which has enabled the farmers to go in for paddy and vegetable cultivation.
However, most of the rain-fed tanks in the places far off from the Western Ghats i.e. between Alangulam and Palayamkottai, which play pivotal role in improving groundwater table, have only 10 to 30% water as the monsoon is yet to bless these regions with bountiful rainfall.
“Whenever the dams of the district had excellent storage level to catalyse farming operations, crime rate in the district would come down drastically. Since water level in two major dams are inching towards the maximum capacity and storage level in one more dam is gradually improving, one can expect significant fall in crime cases, which is certainly good for the district,” said a senior police officer here.
Water level in the dams in Tirunelveli district (in feet; maximum feet in brackets): Papanasam – 142.35 (143), Servalar – 150.52 (156), Manimuthar – 77.70 (118), Vadakku Pachchaiyar – 10 (49.20), Nambiyar – 15.25 (23) and Kodumudiyar – 35 (52).
In Tenkasi district: Gadana – 84.50 (85), Ramanadhi – 78.50 (84), Karuppanadhi – 70.21 (72), Gundar – 36.10 (36.10) and Adavinainar – 131.50 (132.22).
