Southern States - Karnataka   

Drought triggers migration

By Sharath S.Srivatsa

MYSORE FEB. 15. Drought and fewer employment opportunities have forced a large number of agricultural labourers from Chamarajanagar District to migrate to cities in search of jobs. While tea and coffee plantations in Ooty and Coorg attracted a large number of agricultural labourers in the past, the fewer opportunities there have forced them to come to Bangalore and Mysore seeking work as construction labour.

Fifteen of the 20 dalit families in Kariyanakatte village of Chamarajanagar taluk have migrated to Bangalore. Endowed with rich water resources, the village offered employment opportunities to these families in the past even when rains failed.

Nearly 90 per cent of the population in this semi-arid region is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. But the depleting groundwater level has forced farmers not to take up agricultural activity this season. Sixty per cent of the borewells in the district have gone dry, and 20 per cent of them are on the threshold of drying up. Irrigation pumpsets have failed, bringing agricultural activity to a standstill.

The average depth of borewells in the district was around 200 ft., but now water is struck at a depth of around 500 ft. making its use for irrigation unviable.

Many of the families that migrated during last year's drought have not come back. The people who have been left behind in villages by their families are awaiting their return.

According to officials of the Agriculture Department, even during the lean agricultural season normally one-third of the agricultural labour would have had employment.

The district had 15,000 irrigation pumpsets and each one of them could irrigate four acres of land. Normally, crops such as onion, turmeric, ragi, and sugarcane (during good rain) were being raised on some 60,000 acres.

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