PDFIntroduction
It started raining during June 2009, so farmers sowed various crops but rain was not sufficient for agriculture and the people suffered a lot, government declared as drought affected area. People were facing drinking water problem and fodder shortage for animals. There were no employment opportunities to those men and women who relied on agricultural works due to extreme drought. Even government declared the district as drought affected area. Many people were migrating to the other metropolitan cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Solpur, and Pune in the search of livelihood options. In this situation, Government has initiated NREG works at all villages to help those who can work, to avoid the people migration to other cities. Press coverage of Indian Express dated Oct 6th 2009 says, “The flood damage across the command areas of the Krishna, Ghataprabha and the Tungabhadra rivers in north Karnataka has been blamed partly on the failure of irrigations projects where secondary and tertiary canal works remain incomplete. Though late in the day for the kharif crop, the rainfall that has created a flood situation in large parts of the Southern Peninsula has been over 80 per cent above normal after the official monsoon ended on September 30.”
There was a delayed onset of monsoon during last week of September 2009. People were very happy as it was monsoon rain started though delayed. People were getting ready for the agricultural works and planned for agricultural cropping pattern according to the changed monsoon. But the rainfall was heavy and there was continuous raining for more than one week, which adversely affected the socio-economic condition of the rural community. Elderly people said that, they have never seen such extensive rain in their life period.
The heavy and drastic rain caused damages not only to the human beings but also to the livestock of the entire district. In Gulbarga district, Jewargi is the area which is having more than 150 villages, and River Bhima is flowing across 50-55 villages. The river is the only source of water requirement for drinking, bathing, and agricultural purpose to all people residing in these adjoining areas. The lifesaving river ironically resulted in ruining lives as its flood not only gulped human beings, but also livestock, assets their houses. The death toll in Karnataka has been put at 192 and as many as 17.8 million people have been affected by the floods, according to the state government. Over two lakh homes have collapsed or have been damaged, according to the state government records. While agricultural crops in the 15 districts have been completely lost, the road network and electricity lines have been badly damaged.
Some people took shelter under the trees, some in the temple, and in upstairs of houses. Many of our members and non-members were suffering a lot and due to unhygienic conditions there were outbreak of many diseases and illness. Many Kalanjiam members and other people in the villages were expecting support from the outside world to come out of the situation. In the affected villages, some people lost both their livestock crops and houses and some were affected partially. In the affected villages everyone was seeking help.