5 months ago
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“Look astatine this… the tillers person already started to rot. If the h2o doesn’t drain successful a time oregon two, everything volition beryllium lost,” said K. Rajendran, a husbandman from Puzhuthikudi panchayat successful Tiruvarur district, clutching a fistful of damaged paddy shoots from his five-acre tract connected Saturday. His is not the lone case. Farmers crossed the Cauvery delta were disquieted connected Saturday arsenic continuous rainfall nether the power of Cyclone Ditwah has caused lasting samba and thalady crops to beryllium submerged.
For the 3rd consecutive day, rainfall swept done Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, and parts of Pudukkottai, exposing the vulnerability of low-lying villages and long-neglected irrigation channels.
Across the delta districts, authoritative sources said, if the rainfall continued astatine the existent intensity, samba, thalady, direct-sown, and transplanted paddy crops faced a precocious hazard of wide damage.
Large ample tracts of onshore successful Kottur artifact successful Tiruvarur territory person been submerged, causing distress to farmers successful the low-lying Puzhuthikudi panchayat limits, including Chozhanganallur, Somasi, Sabapathipuram, and Keezha Puzhuthikudi villages.
Farmers said adjacent regular monsoon spells pb to stagnation owed to the topography and Ditwah’s continuous downpour has sharply intensified the situation.
P. Soundararajan, Kottur portion caput of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayam Sangam (CPI), said urgent involution was needed. “The Adappar irrigation canal, which drains this full belt, is blocked by hyacinth and silt. Unless it is cleared immediately, these fields won’t drain for astatine slightest 7 days if the rainfall continues. We can’t prevention overmuch unless desiltation is taken up,” helium said.
In the neighbouring Pichankottagam, erstwhile panchayat president M. Mahalingam said astir 650 hectares of samba are raised successful the village, of which 400 hectares are submerged.
“At slightest crops connected 200 hectares cannot beryllium saved due to the fact that determination is nary drainage. We trust connected the Valavanar irrigation canal, but its sub-channels — particularly the 5-km-long Pichankottagam canal — person not been desilted. That is wherefore the h2o keeps lasting here. No steps person been taken to reconstruct the canal, adjacent though it connects to the sea,” helium said.
In Chettiya Moolai, nether Rayanallur panchayat, astir 150 hectares of samba stay nether water. The village, a well-known low-lying pocket, has nary effectual drainage network.
M. Dhanapal, a husbandman from the village, said h2o stagnation had go an yearly feature. “Even if we hold a month, the h2o volition not drain. The Mulkiyatru–Sanganthi irrigation sub-canal, which runs astir 10 km from Adappar to Sanganthi, has not been cleared for galore years. Because of that, we look the aforesaid occupation each monsoon,” helium said.
About harvest prospects, helium said: “The nonaccomplishment is definite — either the full tract volition spell oregon the full output volition driblet sharply.”
Agriculture section sources said crops connected astir 37,000 acres successful the territory are submerged successful water.
Villages marooned
Fresh dense rainfall returned to Nagapattinam connected Friday evening, conscionable hours earlier Cyclone Ditwah's expected approach. The territory — inactive recovering from past week’s flood — saw wide inundation yet again.
Officials confirmed that crops connected 22,600 hectares of onshore were nether h2o arsenic connected Saturday. Though determination was 2 days of sunshine earlier successful the week that allowed immoderate h2o to drain, the instrumentality of aggravated showers brought backmost the crisis.
“Nagapattinam territory is already surrounded by water. If this spell intensifies further, large-scale harvest nonaccomplishment is inevitable,” said S.R. Tamilchelvan, State Policy Propaganda Secretary, Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Protection Association.
8,710 hectares deed
The Mayiladuthurai territory medication said 8,710 hectares of cultivation onshore was nether h2o connected Saturday greeting arsenic 7.34 mm of rainfall was recorded betwixt 8.30 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. with Mayiladuthurai town, Sembanarkoil, and Sirkali receiving the highest rainfall.
Farmers successful the Tharangambadi-Sembanarkoil loop said adjacent mean spells could origin fields to submerge arsenic earlier rainfall had lone precocious receded.
Floods successful Karaikal
Karaikal has reported 4,500 hectares of full submergence, which happens to beryllium the district’s full samba cultivation area.
All paddy fields are present nether water, agriculture section sources said. The flooding is attributed some to the cyclone’s interaction and the continuous travel of Cauvery h2o released, officials added.
Poor drainage
In Pudukkottai, Agriculture section sources estimated 10,000 acres of harvest onshore nether h2o owed to continuous rainfall and mediocre drainage successful interior pockets.
