Crop’s gone, land’s gone, what does Fakkirappa do?
Few villagers have received some compensation for houses they lost, but it is not enough to even repair their homes
Bengaluru: The rains have been extremely unkind to farmer Fakkirappa Hugar, 48, of Kurlageri village, Gadag district. His house collapsed in the downpour and he lost his cotton crop. Now he is forced to live in a leaking house built under the Aasare scheme and is running from pillar to post seeking compensation as the survey of the rain-affected areas is still not complete.
While the rain is no longer causing havoc in North Karnataka, it has left behind a trail of misery with farmers like Fakkirappa losing both their standing crop and homes in the deluge while it lasted in Haveri, Dharwad, Bagalkot and other districts. Compounding their worries, the compensation due to them has still not been distributed.
A few villagers have received some compensation for the houses they lost, but it is not enough to even repair their homes, they complain. Gadag alone received 184 mm of rain against the average of 75 mm in August and the loss is put at Rs 100 crore in the district where four people died and 4,800 houses and 370 kilometer stretch of road were damaged.
“I have lost my cotton, maize and chilli crops in the rain and suffered a loss of around Rs 12,000 per acre . But the government is paying merely Rs 1,000 per acre as compensation ,” laments farmer Somu Udemani of Holemannur village.
Strangely, Dharwad has not been declared flood-hit although Navalgund, Kundagol and several parts of the district received heavy rainfall this monsoon, damaging 1,417 houses and destroying crop over 22,500 hectares.
Farmers in the district are finding it hard to care for their cattle as well as there is little space available after their houses collapsed , leaving them nowhere to go with their animals and the belongings they could salvage.