No water crisis for Mysuru, but fear of crop loss looms

The Mysuru region may not face a drinking water problem this year as the dams have adequate water storage, even though the farmers may face loss of crops, as most of them, except paddy, have already withered due to scanty rains over the past couple of months.

The Mysuru region is mostly the Cauvery catchment and achcut area, with the major dams being Harangi in Kodagu district, Hemavathi dam in Hassan district, Kabini dam in HD Kote taluk of Mysuru district and Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dam in Srirangapatna taluk of Mandya district.

The people, especially farmers, of the region had suffered over the past four years due to scanty rainfall, even though the drought situation did not cause much hardships regarding drinking water. However, cattle were affected as lakes could not be filled. They faced shortage of drinking water and also fodder.

While the water level in the KRS dam is still almost full, the water level in Kabini dam is at its brim. Even other small dams and barrages are full. The sowing of crops was in full swing with encouraging rains, initially. Thus, it reached 92% against the estimate of the Agriculture department. While crops on some lands have been washed away due to floods, the remaining crops are withering of late, due to lack of rains. However, water-fed paddy crops are not affected.

The Revenue department has already listed 100 taluks of the state as drought-prone. However, none of the taluks of Mysuru district figure in the list. The situation in Nanjangud, which had been declared as a drought-hit taluk last year, is also doing better. It has to be recalled that parts of the towns and villages in H D Kote, Nanjangud and T Narsipur taluks were inundated due to overflowing Kapila River, as a result of copious rains in Kerala.

Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Sankar said, there have been complaints from the farmers about shortage of water, but there is no drought. It has to be recalled that even during Dasara, the region received rains for over a fortnight.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Higher Education Minister G T Devegowda and Tourism Minister Sa Ra Mahesh have already chaired progress review meetings of the Karnataka Development Programme at the Zilla Panchayat in Mysuru. There have been no drinking water problem and there are no cases of drinking water being supplied to villages in tankers. As it has rained well across the region, there is no shortage of green fodder. However, there is Rs 3.5 crore in the account of the Deputy Commissioner, in case of an emergency.

Farmer leaders point out that even though there is sufficient water in the dams, the lakes in the villages have not been filled adequately. “While some lift irrigation projects are underway, water has not been let into the lakes where the projects have been completed last year. In the next couple of months, problems may crop up due to this,” they said.