TIRUVARUR: Vast stretches of the once fertile Cauvery delta of Tamil Nadu's Tiruvarur district has now reportedly turned into barren lands. The farmers in the region are considering giving up on agriculture as a source of livelihood. A local, Arogya Mary's husband died six months ago following a heart attack. She said he was heartbroken that there was no water to sow any crop. Farmers in the Cauvery belt, who once used to produce three harvests a year, now have no water to even sow. Only a handful of farmers can afford bore wells.
“I used to help my husband in the field but now I don't want to get back to agriculture. There is no water. My children are studying and not interested in farming,” Mary said. Suffering from similar woes, Raja Lakshmi, 50, desperately tries to pump out some drinking water. “I have agricultural loan to pay off. There is no water. There is no agriculture. There is no drinking water,” she said. Two consecutive monsoon failures have left the river bed dry. Government officials said that the state should have received 189.5 TMC of Cauvery water from Karnataka till April, as per the Cauvery Tribunal, but has only received less than half of that.
“It's the worst drought in 140 years. For even getting water from borewells, you have to dig at least 500 feet deep. There is no water for drinking. What are farmers supposed to do?” asked the president of Tamil Nadu Farmers Association, PR Pandian.
