Encroachments, clogged irrigation canals hinder paddy sowing in Bandipora villages

Several villages in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district are grappling with an acute water crisis as clogged irrigation canals and rampant encroachments threaten the ongoing sowing season of paddy saplings. Farmers in the Bandipora divisions Gamroo, Gundpora, Aragam, Garoora, Chitteybandy, Vijhara, Lowdara, and adjoining areas, said the irrigation network has remained in utter neglect over the years.

They said the solid waste dumping and unauthorised constructions further aggravated the situation. “The canal in Gamroo has not been cleaned for a long time, and its banks have been encroached upon, leaving our fields dry when we need water the most for transplanting paddy saplings,”  a farmer, Ishfaq Ahamd told Greater Kashmir.

Similar issues have surfaced in the village of Lowdara, a few Kilometres from Gamroo, where farmers alleged unchecked encroachments by some persons on Naagrat canal and Gratt Kol, which are rivulets of Arin Nallah, by "official patronage," have worsened the irrigation process for years. "Naagrat rivulet was 16 feet but has now been reduced to a mere one and a half feet," Ghulam Hassan, a local, said. Similarly, Grat Kaul, which was 28 feet wide before, has been choked to less than half of over 7 feet, the aggrieved locals told this newspaper.

"Despite trying to raise the issues with several departments, nothing seems to be happening and the persons involved are undeterred, some of whom brag about having connections in the secretariat," said another local, whose paddy fields are irrigated by the canal in Lowdara alleged. He added, "Besides this issue, there has been illegal construction going on the government land without any checks." Notably, villagers in Gamroo recently pooled Rs 8,000 to hire an excavator machine to clear the clogged canal on their own. They have appealed to DC Bandipora and the Irrigation Department to intervene in the matter.