Drought: Farmers commit suicide in Karnataka

K.C. Gangadhara, 40, of Karle village in Hassan district committed suicide yesterday by consuming insecticide. In another incident in the same district, Lokesh, 43, under Banavar police limits committed suicide by setting himself ablaze.

Durugappa, 30, of Bachigondanahalli village in Bellary district succumbed last afternoon; he had consumed poison on Monday. This is the fifth suicide in the district. The maize farmer, who had taken a loan of Rs 25,000 from the Tungabhadra Gramin Bank, owned five-acre land, and when both of his borewells went dry, his crop failed.

Ganganna, 60, of Mugalur village in Tumkur district, who had consumed poison on Friday, passed away at the Adichunchanagiri Medical College Hospital in Bellur on Tuesday.

He had taken loans from a bank and private moneylenders to save his withering coconut plantation, afflicted by the mite disease, as well as for the marriage of his children. He had seven acres of land and has suffered crop losses for the last three years.

Chinnaswamy Naik, 50, a marginal farmer from Suttur Village in Mysore district, died in hospital yesterday after battling for life. He had been shifted to hospital on Tuesday following his suicide attempt. Naik owned 1.5 acres of land and had borrowed Rs 20,000 from private moneylenders.

Govindanaik, 52, of Holebenavalli Doddathanda village in Shimoga district hanged himself on Wednesday morning, taking the toll of farmers’ suicides in the district to 10. He owned a one-acre plot of land and had borrowed a total of Rs 1.3 lakh from a nationalised bank, a local credit cooperative society and from private moneylenders.