Farmers in Kangra face drought-like situation

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, January 1

Farmers in Kangra district are facing drought-like situation due to lack of rain and snow in Dhauladhar mountain ranges for the past more than three months now. Most of the agriculture in Kangra district was rainfed.

The worst affected are the Changar area farmers. Changar areas of Kangra district are water deficient and mostly dependent on rainfall for irrigation. Kuldeep, a farmer from Changar near Jawalamukhi area, said that they had lost even their seeds due to lack of rain. Expecting rain, farmers had sown wheat crop in December. However, due to lack of rain the seed is unlikely to germinate. The farmers would have to again sow the seed in case there was rain in January, he said.

The farmers in Dharamsala, Kangra and Palampur areas were dependent on kuhls for irrigation. The kuhls are water drain sources from perennial rivers in the valley. Water in these drains flows by gravity and irrigates the fields. However, the water discharge in the rivers in Kangra valley was very low this year. Due to low water discharge there was no water in kuhls for irrigation.

Most of the rivers of Kangra valley get water from the rains or snowmelt in Dhauladhar mountain range. This year in view of the prolonged dry spell most of the glaciers that were perennial sources of water to the rivers flowing through the Kangra valley have vanished.

RS Rana, who has been trekking through the Dhauladhar mountain range for the past more than four decades, said it was for the first time that almost all the glaciers on the front side of mountains had vanished.

In the lower areas of Kangra valley, including Nurpur, Indora and Dehra sub divisions, agriculture is dependent on rain though some horticulturlists in Nurpur and Indora area have their own tubewells for irrigation. Shah canal was the only canal irrigation project of the state that carries water of Beas to Indora and Nurpur areas. However, since its tail end canal system has not been completed it is of not much use to the farmers. Tea farmers of the state are also like to suffer losses due to dry spell as tea needs moist weather to grow.

Weather experts are predicting rains in the first week of January. However, in case the present conditions continue the farmers of the lower Himachal area are likely to suffer major losses.