When water scorches the earth

In villages throughout the plush Godavari delta, coconut timber are greater than only a crop; they’re sacred and their cultivation, the linchpin of rural economies. Towering over groves, backyards, nation roads and canal banks, the coconut tree is a pillar of rural livelihood within the area. From farmers and merchants to coir makers and oil extractors, it helps a whole lot of hundreds of individuals throughout not less than 15 occupations.

In Central Godavari Delta, often known as ‘Konaseema’, coconut tree are grown on over 54,000 hectares. A 2022 report by the Coconut Development Board exhibits that India’s highest coconut yield of 15,964 fruits a hectare was reported in right here in Andhra Pradesh.

But at 9 villages dotting Malkipuram and Maamidikuduru mandals of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Konaseema district, the all-important timber are dying by the hundreds. The purpose: a big pure drain, as soon as revered by villagers as a lifeline, is now flooding coconut groves with saline water, killing the timber and turning the wealthy delta soil barren.

A person-made catastrophe

Originating in Sakhinetiapalli mandal, the 22.7-km Shankaraguptam freshwater drain snakes via Malkipuram mandal earlier than assembly Vynateya department of the Godavari river at Karavaka in Maamidikuduru mandal of the district. It is fed by quite a few stormwater drains and the surplus water let loose from agricultural fields.

Over the years, coconut farmers in villages alongside the drain dug channels to irrigating their groves. The association labored properly for them till 2017, when it was dredged for 8.5 km until Kesanapalli from the purpose of its confluence with the river department. The canal had been dredged for six.3 km from its origin by 2013, leaving a 7.9-km part untouched between these two parts. This upset the drain’s pure movement, inflicting the saline backwaters of its the confluence level with Vynateya department to ingress deep into the drain.

The dredging was a part of a routine train by the Godavari Delta System wing of the Water Resources Department to desilt the drain, however one which was left incomplete.

“By 2019, the drain’s water had change into saline, and inside six years, coconut groves unfold over 500 acres have died in Kesanapalli panchayat alone. That’s almost 5,000 timber grown by 150 farmers, says Yenumala Nagu, the sarpanch of Kesanapalli panchayat, which has a inhabitants of 4,600. Nagu’s personal six-acre coconut grove, which his late father had grown with 600 saplings within the early Nineteen Nineties, has perished. “I’ve a coconut nursery on 2.5 acres, however the saplings have change into stunted,” he says.

According to the Coconut Development Board, all these groves had been between 30-40 years outdated and excessive yielding, with an annual yield of 220 fruits a tree. The regular lifespan of the tall number of coconut tree is alleged to be round 80 years.

The different eight villages hit by the phenomenon are Sankaraguptam, Padamaatpalem, Tooruppalem Gollapalem, Katrenipadu Lanka, Gudapalli, G. Pallipalem and G. Gubbalapalem within the mandals of Malkipuram and Sakhinetipalli and Maamidikuduru. The complete economies of those villages are pushed by agriculture, with coconut being an important crop.

Retired IAS officer and Razole Jana Sena Party MLA Deva Vara Prasad says an estimated one lakh coconut timber have died alongside the Sankaraguptam drain over the previous six years. “Stagnation of the drain water in close by fields has affected paddy cultivation as properly, with acreage shrinking from 14,000 to barely 3,400 in Razole meeting constituency [over the same period].”

Moreover, the affected paddy area can’t be used for rising every other crop, save for brackish water aquaculture. But the one really useful species for the world — L. Vennamei shrimp — is contaminated by the ‘White Spot’ illness in Godavari and Krishna areas, in response to 2015 studies by the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA).

From fertile to barren

At Gollapalem panchayat, barely three kilometres from the drain’s confluence with the river, D. Srinivas, owns a 40-year-old coconut grove on 2.5 acres, which is his inheritance. “All the timber on two acres have perished. The remaining 70 timber are additionally sick and will not survive,” says the 35-year-old.

Srinivas now makes a residing as a dealer, procuring coconuts from surrounding areas and promoting them to shoppers throughout the State. He is, nonetheless, simply one of many 150 small farmers who’ve misplaced their groves to the canal’s saline water.

The phenomenon got here to gentle in 2019 when farmers started to note the premature demise of their timber. Subsequently, the Horticulture Research Institute (ICAR-HRS) at Ambajipeta and the district administration had been alerted.

In 2022, an eight-member inter-departmental workforce of specialists, together with these from HRS-Ambajipeta, A.P. Pollution Control Board and Groundwater Department, launched an investigation into the matter. It was led by the Minor Irrigation Wing of Water Resources Department, Kakinada.

Soil and water exams revealed a excessive focus of chlorides, fluorides and sulphates in samples collected from the affected groves. “Hence, backwaters with a excessive salt focus had been discovered to be the reason for demise of the coconut palms,” concluded the workforce, which comprised specialists in soil science, plant pathology, entomology, groundwater and setting. The workforce later submitted a report back to the Agriculture Department.

In 2023, one other investigation was launched by Dr. Y.S.R. Horticulture University. Led by Director of Research L. Naram Naidu, the college workforce studied the phenomenon on 45 acres of coconut groves. Their report, submitted to the Coconut Development Board, reads: “The backwaters of Shankaraguptam drain have been coming into and stagnating within the coconut plantations subsequent to the dredging operations. The coconut plantations are waterlogged for over per week each month. The backwater ingression is inflicting a excessive salt focus [in the soil].”

The report added that the saline water was additionally stunting the timber’ progress. Notably, each investigations steered dredging of the remaining portion of the drain as an answer. They reasoned that the method would restore the pure movement of the drain and stop backwater ingression.

Early mitigation efforts falls via

In 2019 itself, the Dowleswaram Irrigation Circle authorities had submitted a proposal to the then authorities to finish dredging, but it surely fell via. “We just lately submitted a contemporary proposal with a price estimation of ₹10 crore to dredge the pending distance. It is underneath scrutiny for monetary clearance,” says Nagarjuna, Razole Drainage Sub-Division Deputy Executive Engineer (Dowleswaram Irrigation System).

However, when a bunch of coconut farmers from the Central Godavari Delta met Minister for Water Resources Nimmala Rama Naidu on August 10 to hunt his intervention on this regard, the Minister cited an absence of funds to hurry up the dredging, says one of many farmers on the situation of anonymity.

Cornerstone of life and tradition

It was in Shankaraguptam village, almost six kilometres from the drain’s confluence, that the award-winning film Chanti (Telugu) was shot in 1992. The Venkatesh-Meena starrer captures the plush inexperienced coconut groves alongside the canal. The coconut grove seen within the movie, nonetheless, has now perished, apparently due to the saline water drawback. Adjacent to this grove are many aged homes, relics of a as soon as affluent period.

Coconut cultivation and processing, nonetheless, proceed to help numerous individuals within the delta. The occupations embrace climber, dealer, peeler, grader, porter, copra dealer, husk processor, coir maker and oil extractor. A lot of these employees are ladies. The fruit is central to a lot of customs and rituals of the villagers as properly.

Srinivas says he just lately procured 10,000 coconuts from villages in Malkipuram and Sakhinetipalli mandals. “Not even one was appropriate to be used in our conventional weddings,” he provides. It is customary within the Godavari Delta for the bride to show up for the marriage with a spotless inexperienced coconut in her fingers as a mark of prosperity in married life.

“Now, wedding ceremony photographers paint the coconuts inexperienced as it’s troublesome to discover a well-developed coconut, says Anji, a coconut grove proprietor who has now resorted to aquaculture in Malkipuram mandal.

Salt on the wound

Groundwater in all of the 9 villagers has additionally change into salty. “We received’t drink the water from hand pumps,” says Achanta Satyanarayana, a coconut peeler. Most of them now buy purified water, a heavy drain on their modest incomes.

MLA Deva Vara Prasad says a 350-km pipeline is being laid to provide secure ingesting water to 60,000 households in Razole meeting constituency by 2027.

Looking at a lifeless coconut tree, Kesanapalli Sarpanch Nagu says: “Surface water is killing coconut timber and groundwater just isn’t potable. Within a couple of years, my village might be empty as we could have to go away the place.”