Incessant rain, especially during night, has flooded the Government Veterinary Hospital in Poigai village on the Chennai - Bengaluru Highway (NH 48) in Vellore.
As the premises remained inundated in waist-deep rainwater for a week, the cattle owners had to walk at least 12 km along with their animals to the District Government Veterinary Hospital, the nearest facility available for them for treatment.
Tucked between Anpoondi lake and the highway, the hospital is the lifeline for farmers from villages, including Poigai, Sathyamangalam, Mottur, Chozhamur, Kothamangalam, Thirumani, Vasathanadu, Maruthavallipalayam and Abdullapuram. These villages are located between the airport under construction and the Collectorate on the highway in Vellore. The lakes on both sides of the highway help these farmers to irrigate their lands through a series of water channels. “We can't allow our cows to suffer from sickness. A few farmers form small groups, pool their money, to transport the cattle to the district hospital. But, many of them walk with their animals to the nearest hospital,” said K. Maruthu, a farmer in Poigai village.
Veterinarians cite two reasons for the inundation of the hospital, which had been the case for the past three years. First, the existing carriageway of the highway is about four feet higher that the hospital due to re-laying without milling. More importantly, the water channels that discharge excess rainwater to the Anpoondi lake, maintained by the PWD, were never desilted and repaired for years resulting in clogging of the channels during monsoon.
Farmers, village elders and veterinarians have submitted petitions to the Vellore district administration seeking to repair the channels and construct shutters to divert excess rainwater to waterbodies nearby but their pleas remain unattended. "We have given our phone numbers to village elders in these villages. Any emergencies, our vets will visit their houses to treat their cattle as a stop-gap measure," Dr. G. Andhuvan, Assistant Director (AD), Animal Husbandry Department (Vellore), told The Hindu .
