Streams, rivulets and rivers on the foothills of the Western Ghats lack the usual monsoon grandeur now with Dakshina Kannada receiving less than the half of the average rainfall last month.
According to the office of the Deputy Commissioner, the district recorded an average 439.4 mm rainfall last month against the normal average rainfall of 941.8 mm for June. The district had recorded an average 1,224.5 mm rainfall in June last year.
Many streams and rivulets in Sullia, Belthangady and Puttur taluks which otherwise brim with rainwater during June and July now present a grim picture indicating that the district is likely to face a water crisis very early.
“In my knowledge it is the most dry June in the past six decades in the district,” a 73-year-old Manchi Srinivasa Achar, president, All India Areca Growers Association, Puttur, and also an engineer told The Hindu .
If the same situation continued, arecanut, the main plantation crop of Dakshina Kannada would be at the receiving end besides leading to scarcity of drinking water, he said.
N.J. Devaraja Reddy, a hydrologist and an expert in rainwater harvesting, said that the coastal belt, particularly the foothills of the Western Ghats, was once known for springs. They have disappeared now clearly showing how water management has been given the least priority in the race for urbanisation, indiscriminate drilling of borewells, destruction of greenery and growing commercial crops.
Mr. Reddy said that the monsoon, especially rainfall from June to August, mattered the most in re-charging groundwater. Springs ensured water supply to all water bodies.
Vasant Bhat Todikana, an agriculturist from near Sullia, said that farmers still have hopes on post-monsoon rain occurring between October and December.
Scanty post-monsoon rain in the district in 2018 had forced the government to declare in January this year all taluks in the district as partially drought-hit.
The government had in 2017 declared Bantwal and Mangaluru taluks as drought-hit. It was based on a deficient post-monsoon rainfall during 2016.
