Meanwhile, CM’s name sinks in his native village

The villagers feel let down by Krishna’s decision to release water to Tamil Nadu. His village neighbour, S.K. Shivalingiah, said: ‘‘We never expected our man to betray us. Though many dismissed the padayatra as a political gimmick, we believed Krishna would keep his word.’’ Many villagers had snubbed party affiliations to support the padayatra. They now grimly warn that Krishna’s ‘‘hasty’’ decision to release water could cost him dear in the future.

Others, however, prefer to go soft on him. ‘‘Their’’ Krishna, they said, went wrong only in the eleventh hour. They can’t, however, forget Guru Swamy, the Beechanahalli panchayat member who jumped to his death in the Kabini dam. He has died in vain, they said.

Now, after the monsoon has failed, more than 60 per cent of the villagers rely on sand-mining in Shimsha river for a livelihood. They fear in the next couple of months there would be no water for the standing sugarcane and no fodder for cattle.