School teacher documents alarming farmer suicides in Siddipet’s Veluru village

A government teacher from Siddipet has documented 51 suicides in Veluru village, most involving small farmers facing debt, crop losses, or family distress. His book Veluru Atmahatyala Gosa highlights the worsening agrarian crisis and calls for counselling and government support.

Siddipet: A disturbing pattern of suicides among small and marginal farmers has emerged from Veluru village in Wargal mandal, prompting government school teacher and social activist Puli Raju to document the crisis in a book titled Veluru Atmahatyala Gosa (The Sad Stories of Suicides in Veluru).

Raju, who has studied farmer suicides across Telangana for over two decades, said the numbers in Veluru were alarmingly high compared to other villages he had visited. His book, to be released on Thursday in Gajwel by counselling psychologist Dr C Veerendar and Kargil war veteran Group Captain G J Rao, chronicles these tragedies.

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Veluru, with 730 families, 98 per cent of them dependent on agriculture, has reported 51 suicides, including 44 farmers. Of these, 42 were men. Financial distress and crop losses led 22 to end their lives, while eight died due to family disputes, another eight due to depression, and six owing to health issues.

In a particularly tragic case, three sons from a single family committed suicide over a span of 20 years, leaving behind widowed wives and semi-orphaned children. Another family lost three members, Kolguri Balaiah (2010) and his sons, Kolguri Lakshmi Narsaiah (2002) and Kolguri Narasaiah (2023). Balaiah’s younger brother, Chinna Narsaiah, also died by suicide in 2010.

The Golla/Yadav community, which largely depends on cattle herding and small-scale farming, accounted for 20 of the 51 deaths. With such a high number of male suicides, villagers said marriage prospects for young men had drastically declined. Raju said most families owned less than five acres of land or none at all. He urged the government to intervene through counselling, socio-economic studies, and livelihood support to help villagers cope with the crisis.

“The aim is to bring awareness and hope that no more lives are lost in Veluru,” Raju said.