Telangana farmers thrive, others give up

Dry brown was a predominant colour across farm fields in Telangana, that is, before 2014. Over the last eight years, the shades have changed.

Hyderabad: Dry brown was a predominant colour across farm fields in Telangana, that is, before 2014. Over the last eight years, the shades have changed. Gradually, lush green has taken over, with the State government focusing its energies on irrigation projects and recharging the groundwater through multiple initiatives, ranging from Mission Kakatiya to Mission Bhagiratha.

This, in turn, has seen farmers in Telangana reaping good crops, and profits too. However, the same is not the story with their counterparts in many other States. Severe water scarcity has reached such an extent that, in some States, farmers are forced to give up farming and take up other jobs for a livelihood.

In Gujarat, one of the most water-stressed States in the country, farmers in the Kutch district are staring down the barrel at a prolonged water crisis. Though, the Kutch branch of the Narmada canal, taken up as part of the Sardar Sarovar Project facilitated the supply of water to a few parts of Kutch, dry and parched lands still remain in Sikra, Devisar and other villages.

A few farmers in these villages reportedly own about 100 to 300 acres but take up cultivation in hardly 20 acres due to paucity of water. Even today, residents in Devisar village of Anjar Taluk walk long distances to fetch water for drinking and irrigation requirements.

A similar situation prevails in many parts of Madhya Pradesh as borewells dug up on the banks of River Narmada are fast drying up. Farmers in Bijanwada village in Narmadapuram district and Bankhedi village are worried over depleting groundwater levels and dried-up borewells. It is reported that over 600 tubewells in the district had gone defunct since 2019.

Apart from the farming community, households in Maharashtra are facing a drinking water shortage. As many as 69 urban centres reportedly do not receive fresh water supply regularly. At a few places like Badnapur of Jalna district, water is supplied once in 15 days. Many towns in the Latur district, which hit the headlines for getting water through rail wagons in 2016, still do not get daily water supply.

Though the Central government is implementing the Atal Bhujal Yojana with an outlay of Rs 6,000 crore in water-stressed areas of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the farmers do not seem to be in a mood to wait anymore.

The Telangana story

The persistent efforts of the State government here, in constructing Kaleshwaram, the world’s largest lift irrigation project, have aided in ensuring supplying sufficient water to the farming community. The emphasis was not confined to constructing major and minor irrigation projects. Restoration and rejuvenation of over 24,000 water tanks under Mission Kakatiya were also taken up, not to mention the construction of check dams by both the Irrigation Department and the Roads & Buildings Department across the State.

There were reports of water gushing out of borewells in a few fields in Medak, Rajanna Sircilla, Shabad and other areas. These multi-pronged initiatives have seen the groundwater level in Telangana rising sharply. The same was highlighted in the ‘Dynamic Ground Water Resources computed for Telangana State for the year 2022’.

According to the report, the average groundwater level in the State has increased by more than 4.26 metres in the last seven years. The increase in groundwater levels was observed in 83 per cent of mandals, which is the highest in the country. The total extractable groundwater availability stands at 680 TMC, which is more than twice the water allocation to Telangana State in the Krishna basin.

Strikingly, the Ministry of Jal Shakthi in its 2020 Report of Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India had said the overall groundwater extraction in the State decreased from 65.45 to 53.32 per cent. This can be attributed to government interventions such as water conservation activities under Mission Kakatiya, improvement in surface water irrigation and drinking water supply under Mission Bhagiratha etc, it added. Despite all this and appreciation from the Centre itself, the union government has not considered Niti Aayog’s recommendations to grant Rs 19,205 crore for Mission Bhagiratha and Rs 5,000 crore for Mission Kakatiya.