Bengaluru: Farmers in Mandya, Tumkur and Mysuru have to give up the cultivation of paddy and other crops due to the acute shortage of water for irrigation purposes. The water available in Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) and other reservoirs in Cauvery basin is barely sufficient to supply drinking water to Bengaluru, Mysore, Mandya, Kodagu and other villages.
As of now, KRS reservoir has only 10.01 TMC of water with inflow of mere 1,185 cusecs of water. Bengaluru needs 18 to 19 TMC of water while Mysuru requires three TMC of water. According to B Shivashankar, chief engineer (south), irrigation department, the water level at KRS should be at 63.5 TMC, Kabini 36.9 TMC, Haranga 27.88 TMC and Hemavathi 31.5 TMC during normal monsoon. The storage of all the reservoirs should be at 159.91 TMC but the present water storage is just 29.86 TMC that includes 10.01 TMC at KRS, 9.029 TMC at Kabini, 5.121 TMC at Harangi and 6.33 TMC at Hemavathy.
A visit to KRS reservoir would throw some light on how bad the situation is in Cauvery basin. One can see stones everywhere in KRS reservoir. Most of the gates are open with no water in the reservoir. The irrigation department authorities said that the command (achcut) area of KRS is around three lakh acres in Mandya and Mysuru districts where paddy is the major crop. If the water storage at KRS is any indication, it seems like there may not be any release of water from the KRS into canals. The irrigation department authorities said that the water available in the reservoir would be utilised for drinking purposes in Bengaluru, Mysuru and other cities and villages. The state government had already declared a crop holiday this year due to the shortage of water for irrigation purposes.
Meanwhile, there is nothing to cheer about the condition of farmers in Hassan district.
If there are no rains within a few weeks, there will be an acute shortage for drinking water in many villages.The irrigation department authorities had stopped releasing water into canals as they wanted to preserve the water at Hemavathi reservoir to cater to the needs of the people in Hassan, Arakalgud, Holenarsipura, Chennarayapatna, KR Pet and other villages. Hence, with the irrigation authorities stopping the release of water from Hemavathy reservoir, farmers are looking at the sky expecting the rains to save standing crops that are all set to wither in a few days.
Many farmers, including Eraiah of Hebbala village, are set to suffer huge losses for the second consecutive year due to the shortage of water for irrigation. Eraiah will lose Rs 10,000 that was invested to cultivate jowar and maize on his 1.5 acres of land. Charly and Mariyamma are in a dilemma as to how to recover Rs 40,000 that they had invested to cultivate their four acres of land at Hebbala village. “We did not earn much during last year. We expected good monsoon this year and invested Rs 40,000 to cultivate maize and jowar crops but the crop is withering now due to shortage of water and the failure of south-west monsoon,’’ said Charly.
Meanwhile, Sreenath, assistant executive engineer, Hemavathi reservoir sub-division said that the impounded water in the dam would not be released for irrigation and would be preserved for drinking purposes. The full capacity of the reservoir is 37.10 TMC but the present storage is hardly 7.67 TMC of which 3.303 TMC water is live storage. The farmers have to strive hard to manage with the current water storage until June next year.
