How desperation for water for farming is pushing Indapur farmers to risk their lives

Irrigation officials said the farmers in the area have not been given permission to draw water from the shaft constructed as part of the stabilisation project. “The farmers were given permission in May as they had requested that their wells had run dry and they had no water for their farm. However, after that we had not given them the permission. Yet they were drawing water with the help of a motor,” Yogesh Shingade, deputy engineer of the irrigation department, told this newspaper.

Shingade said the area is a dry land and farmers have to struggle for water. “Our permission was for temporary period. However, farmers continue to draw water by risking their lives. They need water for their farm. The tunnel is nearly 275-feet deep. The shaft was full of water a few months back but now its level has sunk. We have put up a railing around the shaft so that nobody enters it, but farmers don’t care. The work of the shaft was over some time back. Therefore, no officials were present…,” he said.

Anil Bapurao Narute (left) and Ratilal Balbhim Narute.

Ratilal Narute was accompanied by his son and Anil Narute was accompanied by his father to the shaft. While the two entered the tunnel, their kin waited for them to finish the task.

The farmers went inside to push the submersible pump in the water. A farmer who was present at the site told this newspaper: “Due to poor rainfall, water levels have been very low. As the water levels have decreased, one has to step in and push the motor inside the water for it to work.”

When the crane carrying Ratilal and Anil crashed, the water was there only till the knee-level.

Tanaji Padhare, a resident of the village said, “After covering fifty feet of the depth, their rope broke. Since the rope was colour coated, they didn’t realise it was on the verge of breaking.”

Like them, many families who have farms in the area have laid pipelines in a similar manner till the shaft.

The incident took place around 5.15 pm on Wednesday when it was beginning to get dark.

Baramati MP Supriya Sule visited the village and consoled the relatives on Thursday. Tehsildar Srikant Patil said, “Documents of these farmers will be assessed. If they fall under any scheme, they will be provided help. But we have to consult the irrigation agency and verify the legality of it.”

The Krishna-Bhima stabilisation project involves interlinking of river basins, several lift-irrigation projects and supplying water to drought-prone districts of Marathwada region including Dharashiv and Beed districts.

In November 2017, as many as nine workers had lost their lives in a similar manner at a nearby shaft constructed for the same project in the same Akole village when an elevator box carrying the workers and equipment collapsed in the shaft after its cable snapped when the workers were coming out of the shaft after finishing their day’s work.

Relatives who gathered under a tree in front of Ratilal’s house lamented about the poor rainfall and the dry well which forced them to desperately search for water. “We have to look for water wherever it is available. People set up motors in that shaft because it is deeper than our wells. So, the potential level of water accumulations is higher,” said a relative.

They said though they have wells and bore wells, those have sunk low at this stage of the year. One of Ratilal’s relatives said, “Incidents of this magnitude shouldn’t happen, but there is no help to farming and its challenges. Water is not available here. There is perennial scarcity in this area.

The family went over and over again, hopeful in retrospect, “Had the water level been higher, even after such a fall, they could have found their way out swimming. It still meant a chance for them to be alive. It’s unfortunate that we lost two lives in a day,” said another relative.