Ayyanakere lifeline of Sakharayapatna villages
'We will have to wait for rainy season every year for water, if Ayyanakere was not there in our village,' Villagers of Sakharayapatna assert unanimously when they speak about Ayyanakere lake.
There are 22 villages in the Sakharayapatna hobli, which are situated between Kadur and Chikmagalur. As the primary livelihood of people here is agriculture, they depend on Ayyanakere to irrigate their fields. The major cultivation here include arecanut, coconut and sugarcane.
Ayyanakere, which has 10 branches, irrigates the fields. Villagers say that each branch of Ayyanakere irrigates about 300 - 400 acres of agriculture land.
The lake caters water to several agriculture fields on a stretch of about 15 kilometers. The speciality of Ayyanakere is that it maintains the ground water level in about 40 -50 kilometers surrounding regions.
It requires atleast one month for Ayyanakere to brim during rainy season. Meanwhile, the water in the Ayyanakere never dries up even if farmers irrigate their fields 4 - 5 times.
Government has plans to supply drinking water from Ayyanakere to other surrounding villages.
