PONDA: For the past five years, at least 200 farmers from Ponda’s Chikhalpaine-Kundaim village have left their once-fertile agricultural fields fallow, for fear that any crops they cultivate would be destroyed by saline water breaching the old, broken down bhandara bordering their khazan lands.
After spending most of their savings repairing multiple breaches in the 1.5 km bhandara in July this year, the farming community has noticed that the bundh has yet again been breached in several places, posing a threat to not just their fields, but also to their homes nearby.
For khazan farmers, a reliable bhandara or retaining wall is essential to protect fertile farmland from the infiltration of brackish water and prevent soil erosion during heavy rain.
Anxious that the traditional centuries-old bhandara could collapse at any time, inundating their lands, and exhausted with having to repair the bhand every monsoon, the farmers have demanded that the government construct a permanent bhandara in the agrarian village, so they can begin cultivation of paddy in their fertile khazan lands.
“The government needs to step in and help us restore the bhandara permanently. Every season, we spend a lot of money on the repairs, and we are tired of doing this over and over again.
An area of 32 hectares of land has been inundated with saline water Due to this, the check dams of the neighbouring fields have also developed cracks,” said Vijesh Naik, President of the Chikhalpaine Farmers Association.
“If the bhandara is not repaired before the rains this year, it will collapse completely, and the flooding could be disastrous for our farmlands and homes,” rued Naik. Naik said that the farmers in the area are desperate to cultivate paddy across the 32-hectare area. “A tender for the construction of the riverside bhand has already been floated by the Soil Conservation Department, at a cost of Rs 2.4 crore, and it is now in the Chief Minister’s office for approval,” said Naik, urging the CM to take up the matter immediately, and ensure that the restoration is complete before the rains.