Drought kills 2.28 crore areca nut, coconut trees in Karnataka

BENGALURU: Successive droughts and depletion of groundwater table in Karnataka has destroyed a whopping 2.28 crore arecanut and coconut trees.

“The state has witnessed low rainfall this year too and farmers are finding it difficult to source water even after drilling borewells up to 1,200 feet, the situation is getting worse,” law minister T B Jayachandra told reporters here on Monday while pointing to an imminent horticultural crisis.

The major coconut and arecanut growing districts in the state are Tumakuru, Hassan, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Shivamogga and the coastal region.

Jayachandra said while 45 lakh coconut trees have been hit by disease around 1.83 crore arecanut trees have withered away because of lack of adequate water. The total area where arecanut has been affected is 0.51 lakh hectares.

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Earlier, former prime minister and JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda had met union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh and urged him to set up an expert committee to assess the ground reality pertaining to the damage caused to coconut and arecanut plantations. Gowda had urged the Centre to announce a special package for the coconut and arecanut farmers, but nothing has materialised so far.

The state government had urged the Centre to announce a compensation of Rs 30,000 per acre to the farmers in the drought-affected districts. Jayachandra said: “We will submit a representation to the Centre seeking more funds under the disaster response funds. We will meet home minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.”