Bharuch farmers lose land to river

Come monsoon and most Indian farmers start rejoicing, except the farmers of Bharuch district whose land is on the Narmada's banks.

Monsoons bring only despair to the farmers of Ankleshwar and Zhagadiya taluks of Bharuch district in south Gujarat. The reason is a tremendous problem of land erosion in these two taluks which has worsened since 1994.

From 1994 and 2007 over 50 farmers have lost hundreds of hectares of rich horticulture land in these two taluks. There are incidents where many farmers have lost hectares of land overnight worth lakhs of rupees.

The worst thing for these farmers is that they have no one to turn to for help. Government, may it be the state or the Centre, has closed its eyes and ears towards the problem leaving the farmers helpless.

The monsoon is about to enter Gujarat and the farmers are already getting the jitters. There are two major reasons for the land erosion, one is the excess water from upstream of Narmada river and the second is backwaters of the sea during high tide.

The river Narmada passing through Ankleshwar and Zhagadiya taluks of Bharuch district flows into the Arabian Sea.

The three villages - Borbhatha, Borbhatha Beyt and Sarfuddin of Ankleshwar taluk - has 50 farms located on the river banks and every monsoon whenever there is rain in upstream the river swells and takes away the precious land used for horticulture cultivation. During high tide the backwaters from the Arabian sea also causes land erosion.

Keyoman Kerawala, a farmer from Borbhatha village whose farm is on the river bank, lost almost four acres last year overnight.

Kerawala told Business Standard, "I have lost at least 5 hectares to land erosion since 1994. In 2006 monsoon a heavy flow from upstream washed away almost four acres with standing crop overnight from my farm. The land is fertile and is used for horticulture crops like banana, sugarcane, mango and guava. Its market value is around Rs 10 to Rs 12 lakh per acre and I have lost around five hectares since 1994. The land produces 60 tonnes of bananas per acre per annum and the market value for banana is around Rs 1,100 to Rs 1,500 per tonne. So one can imagine our loss." Keyoman, who has 100 acres.

Rustamji Ginwala, a farmer from neighbouring village of Borbhatha Beyt, told Business Standard, "I had 10 acres and now I have only seven acres left. I am a small farmer and I cant afford to lose my land. There are over 50 farmers in these three villages who have suffered major land loss because of land erosion by backwaters from sea and heavy inflow from upstream."

Jamiyat Patel of Borbhatha told Business Standard, "I had 30 acres and since 1994 I have lost about 6 acres. Every year we suffer Rs 3 to Rs 4 lakh of losses in terms of land loss and productivity loss."

These farmers have made a representation to the local administration, state government and even the Centre. But no help is forthcoming.

On this, Keyoman Kerawala said, "We gave a petition to Bharuch collector, to Ishwarbhai Patel, the BJP member of legislative party from Borbhatha, the state and even to Ahmed Patel, the Rajya Sabha MP from Ankleshwar taluk. Everyone has promised us compensation but nothing has been done yet. Ahmed Patel has visited the villages twice in the last two years. We have lost hope of getting any compensation, now we are only asking the state and Centre to do the needful to solve this problem so that we can retain our remaining land."

Agreeing with Kerawala, Rustamji Ginwala said, "We only ask the government to make some sort of embankment on the river banks which may solve this problem."