Farmers in the delta region in Tamil Nadu have not taken to high-decibel protests this time and are waiting for the administrative and legal processes to help release water to irrigate the samba crop.
PARCHED land, dried up irrigation channels, scorched fields, grief-stricken farmers and jobless farmhandsthis sums up the situation in Tamil Nadus Cauvery delta. Farmers in the region had to abandon the short-term kuruvai (June to September) crop on over four lakh acres (1 acre = 0.4 hectare) of the normal crop area of six lakh acres because the south-west monsoon failed and Cauvery water was not available. As against the States share of 137 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water between June and September as stipulated in the interim order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT), it received only around 28 tmcft, according to informed sources.
Despite losing the kuruvai crop, farmers in the region remained hopeful about the long-duration samba (September to January) crop. The Cauvery River Authority (CRA), headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also ruled on September 19 that Karnataka should release water at the rate of 9,000 cusecs every day to Tamil Nadu for 25 days from September 20 until October 15. However, the CRAs ruling failed to satisfy both States.
In fact, it was only after Tamil Nadu approached the Supreme Court seeking directions that the CRA, which was formed in 1998, met after a gap of 10 years. The Tamil Nadu government maintained that it needed 2 tmcft of water for 24 days or 1 tmcft for 30 days on a pro-rata basis to save the samba crop.
Close on the heels of the CRA meeting, Tamil Nadu moved the Supreme Court on September 25 for a direction to Karnataka which refused to release water as per the decision of the CRA. On September 28, the Supreme Court directed Karnataka to implement the CRAs decision.
As Karnataka unilaterally stopped the release of water on October 9, the next day the Tamil Nadu government filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against Karnataka Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar and others to secure the States due share of water. Former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi urged the Centre to invoke Article 356 of the Constitution against the BJP government in Karnataka. Given the strong political overtones in both States, several lakh farmers and agricultural workers in as many as 10 delta districts in Tamil Nadu have been forced into a situation where their hope for a good samba crop on 15 lakh acres hinges on the north-east monsoon.
V. Ramalingam, a young man, is in a group of farmhands plucking paddy seedlings in a field at Kasavalanadupudur village in Thanjavur district. He and others like him earned Rs.200 for seven hours of work daily, but were rendered jobless when kuruvai cultivation was abandoned. The seedlings could be raised only because water could be drawn from borewells, he said. C. Kumarasamy, a marginal farmer at Periyapudupattinam village near Thanjavur town, said his initial optimism about the prospects of the crop was belied by the scanty flow of water from the irrigation channel.
L. Dhanapalan, a 61-year-old resident of Keezhavasthachavadi village, said a large number of residents had migrated to urban areas in the district in search of jobs because they could not find work in agriculture. He himself operated a hired mechanical plough in the past 11 years, a job for which he was paid Rs.300 a day. R. Palanichamy, former vice-president of Soorakottai panchayat, said that though he had a small piece of land he had become a farm labourer. Many small and marginal farmers in the area had moved out after disposing of their land, he added. In the tail-end areas the situation was worse because water released from the Stanley reservoir at Mettur on September 17 had not reached many villages even 20 days later.
But, strangely, amid all this gloom the farming community has remained calm in what appears to be a marked shift in attitude from earlier years. The mainstream political parties in the State, too, have shown patience even when Karnataka took the position that it would be physically impossible for it to release water anymore in view of the poor storage in its reservoirs. This was in stark contrast to the tension in Karnataka, with activists of some Kannada organisations staging demonstrations against the CRAs decision.
Many issuesIn Tamil Nadu, apart from the failure to evolve a viable distress-sharing formula, several other issues relating to the dispute have come to the fore. Among them are: the need to change the cropping pattern in view of the recurring drought, the impact of sand quarrying on agriculture, the callousness of the Central government, Karnatakas adamant attitude, the taking over of farmland by realtors, the importance of strengthening the Cauvery Family (an initiative started in 2003), and seawater incursion in some areas because of overexploitation of groundwater.
The Tamil Nadu government took the opportunity of the Central teams visit to the State on October 4 to put forth its views, while farmers representatives highlighted the problems they faced. Even while pleading for the immediate release of 48 tmcft of water on a pro-rata basis, the government reiterated its position on the implementation of the interim order of the CWDT, which was gazetted on December 12, 1991. In a letter to Manmohan Singh on October 17, 2011, Jayalalithaa stated that notwithstanding the pending civil appeals and the reference petitions before the Supreme Court and the CWDT, the tribunals final order of February 5, 2007, should be notified in the Gazette of India as required under Section 6(1) of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. She also requested him to put in place the Cauvery Management Board.
On March 16, 2012, the State government filed a civil miscellaneous petition in the CWDT seeking early hearing of the petitions filed by the Party States and the Government of India under Section 5(3) of the ISRWD Act.
The evolution of a distress-sharing formula has been pending for a long time. The Tamil Nadu government demanded yet again, this time in the Assembly during the last Budget session, that the formula, which had been accepted by all the party-States except Karnataka, should be placed before the CRA for its approval.
The Central government came in for a lot of criticism from farmers associations, farm workers organisations and traders for not playing a firm and proactive role. Leaders of agriculturists associations in the delta were critical of the Centre for not resorting to any firm action against Karnataka even after it showed scant regard for the decisions of the CRA, the directions of the Supreme Court and the advice of the Central government.
Most of the farmers leaders are sceptical about an amicable solution being found. But S. Ranganathan, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association, said the need of the hour was to revitalise Cauvery Family, which is aimed at building bridges between the farming communities in both States. He said competitive politics had affected farmers interests adversely. He advocated the formation of peninsular river boards, including a Cauvery board, comprising experts, farmers and other stakeholders as members, to decide the cropping pattern and water requirement of the States concerned.
In Karnataka, the basic problem with regard to water management was that none of its reservoirs was governed by clear rules and regulations, he said. In Tamil Nadu, all reservoirs and dams were opened and closed on prescribed dates, he added. Take the case of the Mettur dam. It is opened on June 12 and closed on January 28.
He urged the Centre to ensure the release of not less than 60 tmcft of water from Karnataka in view of the States requirement for irrigation, even assuming a normal north-east monsoon.
V. Duraimanickam, general secretary of the State unit of the All India Kisan Sabha, and leaders of several other farmers associations denied Karnatakas claim that a distress-sharing formula was not in place. The ISRWDT Act, 1956, lays down clear guidelines for distress sharing and the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) had also evolved a formula in this regard, he said.
K. Balakrishnan, leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and president of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, said special leave petitions before the Supreme Court against the final order of the CWDT would not come in the way of the CRA approving a distress-sharing formula.
Meanwhile, overexploitation of groundwater is emerging as a serious concern in the delta region. Enquiries showed that farmers in many areas in the composite Thanjavur district, which comprised present-day Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts, began sinking borewells in the 1970s when the dispute began. In the past four decades, borewell irrigation has grown phenomenally. According to one estimate, there are around two lakh borewells with energised as well as diesel pumpsets in these three districts. However, unsustainable use of groundwater by sinking wells up to 450 feet (137 metres) has led to a serious problem of seawater incursion in a number of villages.
Another consequence of the prolonged crisis is the sale of land by small and marginal farmers to realtors. Fertile paddy and sugarcane fields have been converted into housing plots in several villages, according to A. Panneerselvam, a kisan leader of Thekkur village in Thanjavur district. For instance, in Pinnaiyur village, which is not far from the main Kallanai irrigation channel, real estate was a flourishing business, he pointed out.
The impact of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP) on farming activities has also come to the fore. Some farmers organisations alleged that adequate number of farmhands were difficult to find because of the implementation of the scheme. However, interactions with farm workers revealed that factors such as crop failure owing to drought, the gradual scaling down of cultivated area and the introduction of farm machinery in the delta had resulted in labour migration. The MNREGP had only compensated the job loss to a small extent, they said.
Confirming this, U. Palaniammal, a resident of Madigai village, said the scheme had helped her and several other women in the area. She said she was ready to work in the farms if she was offered a job. In the absence of assured farm work, she said, she and other women preferred to undertake MNREGP work for a wage of Rs.100 a day. Palaniammal and her colleagues stressed the need for enhancing the number of days of work to 150 a year from the present 100.
Clearly, livelihood and a lot more are at stake in the Cauvery delta region of Tamil Nadu.
COMMents
COMMents
SHARE