ANANTAPUR: An alarming situation prevails in Anantapur district due to a prolonged dry spell. There is a rainwater deficit of 42 per cent, with the lowest rainfall in recorded in the last five years. There is an acute shortage of water in the Tungabhadra Reservoir, for the first time in 65 years.
Heavy losses have been reported in the recent kharif season, and over 15 lakh acres of groundnut crop has been damaged. Farmers sowed their crops over a huge acreage after promising showers in early June last year, but the entire crop withered due to a prolonged dry spell in August and September. Last year, 400 mm of rainfall was recorded, much less than the average of 532 mm.
“The peculiar weather conditions witnessed last season have left the farmers feeling cheated by na-ture. A dry spell of over 45 days meant that there was not enough fodder as we-ll,” said K. Anandaranga Reddy, leader of the Farm-ers Association. G. Ram-esh, a decordicator mill owner from Madakasira complained that oil mills were not in a position to even pay their electricity bills. The water table in the Madakasira area has seen a steep fall, and is currently at a depth of 90m.
“Water is not available even at a depth of 1,000 feet in Madhudi of Agali mandal,” said K. Purushotam Reddy, an official of the groundwater department. M. Reddappa, a farmer from Talamarla village in Kothacheruvu mandal, has had to drill seven bore-wells over the past three months to save his crop. He had sown fruits and vegetables, but his original borewell failed in October. “One after another, I had to drill seven borewells at a cost of Rs 8 lakh over the past three months, to save my crops,” he said.
The poor availability of water in the Tungabha-dra Reservoir has affected the growth of crops other than groundnut as well. This year, only 11 TMC ft of water was allocated, instead of the regular 23 TMC ft. "We faced crop holiday year under the TB HLMC and other branch canals,” said K. Narayana Reddy, a farmer from Kanekal. He added that this was the first time he had witnessed such dire conditions.
