Ganeshwadi is the last village of Shirol taluka in Kolhapur district on the border between Maharashtra and Karnataka. Many farmers from Ganeshwadi and other villages in Shirol straddle between the two states with a home in Maharashtra and agricultural land in Karnataka.
When monsoons hit the western Indian state, floods regularly follow in Shirol. The taluka has 55 villages, among which 43 are 90% flood-affected, while seven villages face the maximum impact, becoming islands during this time of the year.
There has been a flood in Shirol every year, notably in 1914, 1989 and 2005. In 2019, the floods were at a much larger scale than before. The impact is further aggravated by state compensation policies that differ across the border.
According to the farmers, Karnataka offers better compensation for flood victims, but they cannot benefit from it as they reside in Maharashtra.
The Krishna river unites with the Panchganga river close to the border at Narsinhwadi and then further flows to Karnataka where it meets the 524-metre Almatti dam, which is the first dam as the river enters Karnataka, located at Nidgundi in Bijapur district. This dam is also known as the Upper Krishna River Project with backwaters in north Karnataka’s Bagalkot district. The swelling of these backwaters is a major reason for the 2019 floods. Major parts of those districts were paralysed as the national highway, railway, internal roads were under floodwater for more than eight days in August 2019. Damage to homes, agriculture as well as industrial damage was observed.
The flood-hit villages have been demanding better compensation from the Maharashtra government, in lieu of which they want their villages to be incorporated within Karnataka. They say the Karnataka government offers better compensation to each affected family residing in the state compared to Maharashtra, specifically in terms of compensation for collapse and damages to homes. The agricultural assistance per hectare, loan waiver, and relief in electricity bill and taxes are also better in Karnataka, when compared to Maharashtra’s compensation, claim the farmers.
In September last year, the villagers of the seven most-affected villages from Shirol taluka carried out a protest march demanding either full compensation or being connected to Karnataka. While surveys in both states have been carried out, the complete compensation was yet to be doled out, as of December 2019.
While the agricultural damage is being surveyed by the District Agricultural Department, only those farmers who have agricultural land in Maharashtra will benefit, said Shirol tehsildar, Aparna More. The district collector Daulat Desai, said, “One who has a farm in Maharashtra will be eligible [for compensation], the government cannot bear losses of farm lands from other states.”
Major reasons attributed to these floods have been climate change-affected monsoon patterns, followed by unusual rainfall, missing coordination of overflow of two dams Koyana and Almatti, increased height of Almatti, encroachments in redline zone and tampering of technically-established flood lines in urban areas.
A technical study to look into the causes of the 2019 floods is being carried out by a committee appointed by state government of Maharashtra in August last year, which is headed by of irrigation department, Central Water Commission, the Indian Meteorological, researchers of IIT Mumbai, and other experts.
This article first appeared on Mongabay.
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