Farmers, under the leadership of Darur Purushotam Gouda, president, district unit of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene, had taken up the task of removing silt from the Tungabhadra dam in Hosapete.
In a span of 25 days, silt was removed from over 15 acres of land in the dam by digging upto four feet incurring an expenditure of around ₹30.15 lakhs.
In technical and arithmetical terms, the farmers were successful in removing around 0.00261 tmcft out of the over 32 tmcft of silt that has accumulated at the 60-year-old dam. As a result, an additional quantum of water could be stored in the dam.
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The removal of silt was considered as economically unviable because of costs and logistic issues. Yet, many irrigation experts commend the efforts made by the farmers. They said their efforts should be considered an eye-opener to all concerned, particularly the State governments of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana who should be pushed to recoup their legitimate share of water in the dam going waste into the river.