Drought-like situation ravaging north Kashmir’s rice bowl

Bandipora, June 7:  A drought-like situation, created due to the alleged negligence of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department and the Power Development Department (PDD) has put thousands of hectares of paddy land in the Sonawari belt of north Kashmir's Bandipora district on the verge of devastation.

Locals from Sonawari said that dozens of villages are fuming as the paddy fields in the area, also called the rice bowl of north Kashmir, have dried up at the peak of the agriculture season.

“The departments remain unmoved despite the farmers here being on the verge of devastation,” said Syed Asadullah from Tularzoo village of Sumbal.

“We made numerous representations to the officials within and outside the district to resolve the matter urgently, but unfortunately, no one seems to pay heed,” he said.

Notably, the Sonawari belt in north Kashmir's Bandipora district and some of its adjoining villages in Ganderbal and Baramulla depend on lift irrigation schemes for watering paddy fields.

However, according to locals, the power outages have been worse, leaving them high and dry.

“Not only Tularzoo, but dozens of villages of Ganastan, Najjan, Gadkhud Gamur, and other areas in Baramulla like Harinaar, Dachilipora, Khanpeth, and Rakh-e-Dachilipora have been affected,” Asadullah said.

He claimed that about 20,000 kanal of paddy land had been affected by a drought-like situation in the area.

Locals from Hajin and its various surrounding villages, which also fall under the Sonawari belt, have also complained about the lack of irrigation water and said that a huge portion of agricultural fields had dried up.

"All the blame is on the PDD as our pleas have been falling to deaf ears," locals said.

They said that the issue needs immediate attention as the paddy saplings require enough water to survive the dry weather.

“These areas get water via lift schemes installed on tributaries of River Jhelum and Ferozpora nallah, but the lack of power supply has rendered the schemes dysfunctional,” locals said.

"Even as the PDD failed in providing scheduled power supply for irrigation, we had approached the officers with a suggestion to provide us with water lifting pump motors which run on kerosene and solar power, but not even these demands are being met," they said.

"Ferozpora Nallah and River Jhelum are gushing with water, but the irony is we aren't able to utilise it for irrigation purposes. All this is due to the negligence of both the departments as they are not moving forward with any resolution,” another local said.

Gowhar Ahmad of Sonawari said, “We somehow managed to grow paddy saplings in the nurseries where we could avail water, but now the task to transfer them to paddy fields is proving a challenge due to water shortage.”

The locals said the departments or higher-ups need to do something immediately to save their farmlands so that their hard work does not go to waste.