Dried up River Kabani greets drought team

KALPETTA: Experts from various departments of the Union government visited drought torn regions of the district on Thursday to assess the impact of the drought. The team headed by Aswani Kumar, joint secretary at the ministry of agriculture, comprised Dr  K. Ponnusami, Rahul Singh and Vijay Rajmohan (all from ministry of agriculture) and Anjali Charu, chief engineer, central electricity authority. The team discussed the situation with a team of officials headed by district collector B.S. Tirumeni at Sulthan Bathery.

Officials from department of agriculture, irrigation, dairy development, groundwater, animal husbandry and soil conservation, were present. The team visited various drought hit villages at Ariappalli, Mullankolli, Padichira and also the River Kabani that reduced into mere a bed of rocks and sand. It is to be recalled that known for its robust flow both in summer and monsoon, the river had dried up only in 2004 in the past. In the year more than thousand hectares of coffee and pepper farms of Pulppalli and Mullankolly panchayats were devastated.

This year crops including pepper, paddy, banana and ginger cultivated in hundreds hectares were destroyed due to  drought. The team would soon submit a report on the drought situation of the district to the Centre, team head Aswani Kumar informed reporters. The team would meet the officials and ministers at Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. Another team headed by Niti Aayog ministry Manas Choudhary visited Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Thrissur districts.