Uncertainty over crop yield on Saturday drove a debt-ridden farmer to death in a village near Tiruvarur, taking the number of farmers’ suicides to five in the last 15 days in the Cauvery delta district.
Abdul Rahim, 55, was found hanging from tree near his field in Andankarai village, under Alivalam police station limits and 20 km from the district headquarters of Tiruvarur, police said over phone.
Police said Rahim was worried that his paddy crop would fail due to shortage of water. His family members had advised him not to purchase a motor pumpset for drawing groundwater saying it would add to family’s debt, sources said and added that details of the case can be known only after the police complete the investigation.
Police have filed an FIR based on the information provided by a village official who spotted the farmer’s body at 10:30 in the morning. Wailing relatives and friends then removed the body which was taken for post-mortem to the Tiruthuraipoondi Government Hospital, sources said. “There is neither sufficient water for irrigation nor are there rains and this has led to an acute predicament this year,” said a farmer in Tiruvarur district.
Meanwhile political leaders said expressed their concern over water shortage. PMK Chief S Ramadoss said the 12 tmc ft of water that the Cauvery Monitoring Committee had told Karnataka to release to Tamil Nadu would not be sufficient to save the standing Samba crop in about 14 lakh acres in Cauvery delta districts.