 "Crops disappear from Telangana farms as water table drops")
Farmers in Kanakamamidi, a village 22 km west of Hyderabad, grow vegetables and flowers as the city, a big market for the produce, is close by.
Most of the farmland in this village is barren. Farmers stopped cultivation when they found borewells drying up well before the onset of summer. A rose plantation and a couple of mango orchards have withered under the hot sun.
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“I used to grow leafy vegetables to sell to the Reliance Fresh store. Now there is no groundwater. I am saving water to run my poultry farm,” says K Sadananda Reddy, who owns four acres.
Kanakamamidi and several other villages in Moinabad mandal in Ranga Reddy district have seen groundwater fall 12.8 metres to 40.46 metres this year. The average groundwater for Telangana in March was at 14.88 metres, against 12.27 metres, a year ago.
Groundwater is Telangana’s lifeline because only a fifth of the state’s arable land is under canal irrigation. Levels have dropped beyond the reach of borewells because aquifers in upper layers have dried up.
There was a net decline of 2.61 metres in Telangana’s groundwater level during 2015-16 and the department expects a further drop of one metre by the end of this summer. If rain is delayed in June, the situation would become worse, fear officials.
K Dhananjay, joint director of the groundwater department, believes three seasons of normal rain can rebuild the state’s water table.
“People are managing, but the lack of fodder and water for cattle is a big problem,” says G D Priyadarshini, director of the agriculture department. Paddy production during the kharif season declined 50 per cent and cultivated area in the rabi season has shrunk 50 per cent, she adds.
A trolley-load of paddy straw now sells for Rs 20,000 in Ranga Reddy district. There is a spurt in sale of farm animals.
Syedpur village on the Parigi-Shadnagar road is situated on a plateau 640 metres above sea level, the highest point in Telangana. Of its six bore wells two are working. The government supplies water by tankers to a dozen colonies in Parigi town and neighbouring villages, including Syedpur.
The fall in the water table is more widespread in neighbouring Medak and Mahabubnagar districts. Crops and orchards have also been affected in the two farm-rich districts of Nizamabad and Nalgonda.
Telangana reported a fall in groundwater to a depth of 20 metres in 58 mandals in May 2015, which rose to 138 in March 2016. Of these, 62 mandals are in Medak and Mahabubnagar districts. The groundwater department has categorised 300 mandals in the state as water stressed. The state government had declared 231 of the 443 rural mandals as drought-hit in November 2015.
“We are trying to locate potential areas of groundwater with the assistance of hydro-geological experts. We are doing our best to ensure drinking water in villages,” says R P Nanda Rao, chief engineer of the rural water supply department.
Rao says his department sends tankers to 2,000 habitations serving 2.85 million people. It also ensures supply to another 3,600 habitations by connecting villages to working borewells.
Daultabad mandal in Medak district has the deepest groundwater level at 54.45 metres. Farmers here have dug wells beyond this depth, although the Water Act restricts borewells to 36 metres in hard rock areas. Digging each borewell costs around Rs 1 lakh.
“Last kharif, I grew maize on three acres and kept two acres empty. I received Rs 48,000 for 40 quintals of maize. There is no water in the borewells now. I have not sown any crop this season,” says L Rajaiah of Timmakkapalli village in Daultabad mandal. As yields shrink farmers here have not been able to repay bank loans, he adds.
“We are surviving on control rice (Re 1 per kg rice scheme) and the employment guarantee scheme (MNREGS) whenever work is available,” other farmers say.
The highest number of farmer suicides in Medak district have been reported from Daultabad. But suicides have abated in the past couple of years. When there was water, farmers dug multiple borewells and grew crops like cotton. Lack of groundwater has saved them from incurring such huge costs.
P Ramulu, who owns 15 acres in Tirmalapur village in the mandal, stopped rabi cultivation after losing money on 14 borewells. “I cultivate only rain-fed crops. That’s it,” he says.
But Agent Anantaiah of Firangi Puram village in Kondurg mandal, Mahabubnagar district, did not see what was coming. A little less than an acre of paddy, half an acre of chilli and a bit of fodder grass started withering almost a month ago as the wells dried up. “My cow hardly gives milk. Had my chilli crop survived I would have seen some money,” he says.
Anantaiah’s wife has spent Rs 1 lakh on medicines and treatment to help him recover from a paralytic stroke. Their only hope is their son who works in a nearby mill for Rs 3,000 a month.
