By Pankaj Parashar
pankaj.parashar0@gmail.com
Entire India is under flood now a days. Has been a loss of thousands of millions. Cities are facing with traffic jam only. Farmers, villages and agriculture are fighting the battle of life. Remember a few months ago. India was facing drought. In Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, millions of farmers were devastated crops. Drought relief was the biggest issue for Indian politicians. Now flood is the centre point of politics.
PHOTO SOURCE : PATRIKA.COM
To seek solutions to this problem do not have to travel all over the country. Focus on only the western UP. Agricultural production has been declining steadily here. Three rivers have expired and five are endangered. State Government’s water resources department has already reported many times in respect of the river crisis.
Ganga, Yamuna and eight tributaries Krishna, Gangan, Ban Ganga, Ram Ganga, Kali, Neem and Karvan flows through Doab of Saharanpur, Meerut, Aligarh, Agra, Moradabad and Bareilly divisions. Neem, Karvan and Gangan rivers have been over.
The remaining five are flowing as rain drains. In fact, development and repair of river embankments have stayed over the years. The government’s emphasis is only on canal projects. The capacity of the canals are only 2.5 lakh cusecs. The Ganges and Yamuna rivers Including tributaries have more than 20 lakh cusecs water. In Fact Ganga and Yamuna are the lifeline of the state. 22 districts, 69 cities, 38 thousand villages and 2.9 million people are affecting.
Hindon affects eight districts. It is approximately 182 kilometres long distance. Unfortunately river has become industrial and municipal waste carrier. IIT Delhi experts said that life in the river is finished. Krishna river walks 140 kilometres in four districts. This is mirrored in the river only in the rainy days. Kali river flows into ten districts. It has become dirtier as urban sewer line. Neem and Karvan river have lapsed. Gangan has become rainy drain. There is no water in Ban Ganga and Ram Ganga.
The drawing rivers have been hitting agriculture by Drought every year. Every year government of uttar Pradesh has to expend crores of rupees on to control flood and drought relief plans. On the other hand, farmers have to bear the loss of billions of rupees. Take a look on situation in the last years, 2.723 million hectares crops was in the grip of drought in year 2004. Farmers suffered a loss of around Rupees 550 crore. The government had to spend Rupees 88 crore to cover the situation.
In 2005 itself 2.112 million hectares were lost to drought. Farmers lost Rupees 521 crore. The injury was more than a billion of government funds. 1.329 million hectares cultivated in 2006 was destroyed due to drought. Farmers suffered a loss of Rupees 201 crore. The government had to pay Rupees 28 crore as relief to farmers. Maximum crops 3.66 million hectares have withered in alone 2007. A loss of Rupees 615 crore to the farmers and government paid Rupees 125 crore only as compensation to farmers. We have lost 9,000 crore rupees in last decade (2007 to 2016) due to flood and drought.
Due to lack of the water in 2008, 5.50 lakh hectares crops left unirrigated. At least 4.5 percent growth in agriculture is needed yearly but it’s not growing beyond the rate of two percent in which drought is responsible.
Governments must save drowning Rivers otherwise the future will be very horrifying for agriculture and farmers. Everyone will have to face flood and drought. We will have to pay price and suffer the consequences.
