A year after Cyclone Gaja wreaked havoc on the delta region, coconut growers of Pattukottai and Peravurani in Thanjavur district are still struggling to recover from heavy losses and the shock of their livelihood coming under threat.
Nearly 37 lakh coconut trees were felled by the cyclone in Thanjavur district alone, most of them in Pattukottai, Peravurani and Orathanadu, where coconut is normally raised on about 40,000 hectares.
For most farmers of Pattukottai and Peravurani, coconut groves are the only source of livelihood. They had switched over to coconut farming some decades ago because of uncertainty over getting water for irrigating paddy in the tail-end areas. The move had paid good dividends, bringing in steady income to farmers and prosperity to the region. But the cyclone shattered the rural economy.
“It was devastating. It will take a decade for us to reclaim our livelihood,” says V. Kathamuthu, 70, a veteran coconut farmer of Thamarankottai near Pattukottai who lost over 600 trees on his 10-acre farm. For many big farmers like him, the going has been tough ever since. Some like him are too proud to share their financial travails. “Just enough to say we are hard up,” he quips with a listless smile when asked how badly his family has been affected.
Financial distress
But a few others like 60-year-old K. Vairavasundaram open up. With his only son — a recently passed engineering graduate — yet to find employment, Mr. Vairavasundaram has been finding it difficult to repay the educational loan instalment of about ₹10,000 a month. About 300 trees on his five-acre farm were felled by the cyclone. “I used to harvest 15,000 nuts once every two months, which would fetch me around ₹1.50 lakh. But now everything is gone. It will take me five to seven years to recover from the blow,” he says.
N. Swaminathan of Thuvarankurichi is struggling to make both ends meet as he has two sons studying in engineering colleges in Chennai. He and his brother lost 250 trees on their six-acre farm. “I have to take loans from private lenders and rotate money to keep going,” he says.
Officials say ₹406.91 crore has been disbursed as compensation to 57,434 coconut growers in the district. Saplings are given free along with assistance for planting and some other inputs. Farmers say they got a compensation of ₹1,100 a tree but term it inadequate. Many complain that they had received compensation for much less number of trees than they had actually lost.
M. Alakalasundaram of Thamarankottai North and his brothers got compensated only for 420 trees whereas 1,120 trees were damaged on their 6.63 ha farm.
“As per government recommendation, only 75 trees are to be planted on an acre, but most farmers plant up to 90 trees. The officers went by the norm to calculate the damage and were also in a hurry,” says A. Govindasamy, 68, district organiser of the Tamil Nadu Coconut Farmers’ Association, who lost about 100 trees on his two-acre farm and is just now taking up replanting.
Farmers rue that the compensation did not even meet the expense for clearing the dead wood from the farms. “They were not many takers for the trunks and roots, even when offered free. I dumped the trunks and roots by digging pits in our farm. Many others just dumped them on roadsides or around ponds. We had to spend several thousands of rupees for cutting the trunks, removing the roots using earthmovers and clearing the same by hiring tractors. After all this, we have to spend again for purchase of new seedlings and planting them,” points out Mr. Kathamuthu.
Despite the fall in production, the field price of coconuts has not appreciated and rules at just ₹10 to ₹12 a nut, rue farmers. Farmers have to spend on trees which survived the cyclone too. “The yield from trees, which survived, has taken a hit. The trees look pale and the fronds dark. We have to apply fertilizers and take good care to achieve normal yield again,” says S.R.S. Venkataraman of Pallathur, a big farmer, who lost a whopping 3,500 trees on his farms.
