Such has been the rain fury that in most places, normal life has been washed away. Due to heavy rain in the region from the past few days, thousands of acres of agriculture land, where paddy and sugar cane were cultivated, have been inundated. Many areas have been flooded. Houses and trees have been submerged.
The overflowing Varada river has caused much fear among people living in villages along its banks in Sagar and Sirguppa taluks in the district.
The Bisangadde, situated near Talguppa in Sagar taluk has been completely surrounded with the Varada waters. The nearly 30 families here have lost connection with the outside world completely. Rubber boats have been pressed into service here to ferry school children, office workers, and farmers.
Though these scenes repeat every year, people in this village are not ready to leave their place and relocate to safer villages. Moreover, the State government has not initiated any measures to re-locate this village.
Nearly 2,100 acres of agricultural land near Talguppa have been submerged in water, wherein paddy, sugarcane, cotton, ginger, pineapple and other crops were being cultivated. These are the figures provided by the Agriculture and Revenue departments. But the damage is said to be much more.
Dinesh and Sirivanth of Bardanhalli state that they have got adjusted to these heavy rains and floods. "We have no other go but to adjust to nature’s fury," they point out.
However, most villagers point out that the government could take measures by getting flood protection walls constructed in these villages.
The flood affected villagers point out that MLA Gopalakrishna Belur, former minister Kagodu Thimappa, Deputy Commissioner T K Anil Kumar, and scores of other officials and leaders visited these rain affected villages but no measures have been initiated towards mitigating their problems.
The farmers who have lost their crop stated that they had incurred a loss of nearly Rs 7,000 per acre of land. However, the government provides only Rs 800 as compensation per acre of land.
The government should hike the compensation amount, they said.
