The below normal rains in the month of June-July have badly affected the villagers and farmers of Haripal block in Hooghly district.

The villagers mainly depend on tubewells for their day to day requirements, but are now running short of water since the tubewells are drying up with the fall in the level of ground water. The farmers who have sowed Aman rice seeds to prepare seed beds have practically lost all hope of crops.

Lack of rain, dried up irrigation water canals, insufficient output of water from deep and mini bore-wells have completely ruined the prospect of a healthy seed bed and a bumper Aman crop.

Haripal has 15 gram panchayats which comprises Sadesh anchal, Ashutosh anchal, Kaikala anchal, Bahirkhonde anchal and others. Tapan Kumar Pal, Pradeep Dhole, Aloke Satra, Aloke Majhi, Avik Ghosh and other affected villagers and farmers of Haripal block said the villagers and farmers of the 15 gram panchayats are facing acute shortage of drinking water. The tube wells are the only source of drinking water but due to insufficient rains for a long time the level of the ground water has fallen alarmingly, and most of the tube wells have dried up.

“The agricultural lands have dried up, the Aman rice seeds which were sown to prepare seed beds with a hope of rains have been practically lost due to lack of rains, most of the water bodies, small rivers and irrigation canals have dried up. The DVC has not yet provided water for irrigation. Moreover, we are losing our last hope of water for irrigation purpose from the deep and mini borewells, since with the ongoing dry spell the ground level water has fallen alarmingly, the deep and mini bore wells are unable to provide sufficient output of water. Most of them are on the verge of getting dried up,” Pal said.

Beccharam Manna, the MLA of Haripal said: “It is really unfortunate that the expected torrential rains during the month of June-July have not yet come down. The ground level water has fallen alarmingly, most of the tubewells, deep and mini bore wells, are becoming non-functional. All the seed beds have dried up. We fear an impending loss of crops, yet steps are being take so that the DVC promptly provides water for irrigation.”