El Nino effect: Cotton crops failing as rains disrupt farming across Telangana’s Warangal region. The erratic weather pattern has created a crisis for farmers, with heavy downpours washing away cotton plants in some areas while severe drought dries up fields in others. This climatic phenomenon is causing both flooding and water scarcity, leaving cultivators worried about their investments.
In Devaruppula, farmers like Dasharatha who planted six acres cannot sow a single pit because borewells have run dry. Despite the season when ponds should be filled, rains are either absent or excessive. Totakuri Dasharatha laments that while cotton fibers begin to grow, the plants wither without water. The El Nino effect has stopped underground water from rising, deepening the drought.
In Kadavendi village, Dontika Mallaiah invested Rs 60,000 in ten acres of cotton on red loam soil. Although plants grew initially, delayed rains turned the soil into mud. He fears the crop will dry up completely in ten days. Similarly, in Zafargarh, Pagaram, and Thidugu, farmers plowed using borewell water, but the bores failed at planting time, leaving fields like paddy land awaiting rain.
With the El Nino effect worsening the situation, farmers demand that the government release Godavari river water into canals to fill ponds like the large one in Zafargarh, which could irrigate many villages. In Palakurti mandal’s Pusala Tanda, ten acres remain untilled. Farmer Badawat Seethyanayak says his three acres face the worst drought ever, alleging that previous BRS minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao ensured water, but now Congress leaders have stopped it. The crisis highlights urgent need for reliable irrigation support under changing weather patterns.
