Demand for fruits rises as temperatures soar

With the day time temperatures rising across the state, fruits like watermelon are such in demand. Meanwhile, people living in the interiors are struggling to cope with water shortage.

Adilabad is experiencing day time temperatures between 30° C to 40° C, forcing the people to confine themselves indoors, especially in the afternoons. 

Markets are dotted with the fruits like watermelon, muskmelon, grapes, coconut, sapota, orange and sugarcane and traders are doing brisk business. Middlemen are also making brisk business with the leafy vegetables in the local markets.

Sugarcane juice is the flavor of the season and man care crushing centers have sprung up in Adilabad town. Needless to say, business is good. Farmers have taken to watermelon cultivation in Adilabad and Kumarambheem Asifabad districts and fruit vendors are also importing them from bordering Maharashtra. Water-based fruits are preferred t overcome dehydration, a major cause for worry during the summers.  .

Dr Naitham Sumalatha, MD, a general physician in Adilabad towns said that people must take more liquids and sufficient water to avoid electrolytes imbalance in the body and dehydration caused by hot weather conditions. She said that cotton clothes help in keeping the body cool.

She said that people complain of headache and fall sick with sunstroke when exposed to blistering heat for a sustained period of time.

     

Doctors advised the people to cover the head with cloth for protection against  heatwaves and dehydration and take more water at the regular intervals  to remain hydrated and keep primary medical kits on hand for people working under the hot sun. Students writing their examinations must take extra precautions  to avoid sunstroke and dehydration.

Labourers die of heat for want of shade, water

Five peacocks died  due to shortage of drinking water in Karimnagar 

Eleven MNREGS labourers died of sunstroke and other complications at various places due to temperatures above 46 Degree Celsius in the district since the last 15 days.

The labourers’ lives had been at stage also because of a lack of shelter and water at the work site.

The District Water Management Agency( DWMA), the implementing agency of MNREGS has not been providing water not erecting shades at the work site.

The officials concerned usually ducked responsibility by citing drinking water shortage and asking the labourers to work only in the morning hours and evening to avoid high temperatures in the afternoon and carry their own water.

The DWMA was earlier paying an additional Rs 2 a day an additional to each labourer who carried his or her own water and Rs 5 a day to each labourer if they carried 5 litres of water to the work site for their own consumption.  

DWMA project director B. Shankar said so far they had officially recorded the death of a labourer duet to sunstroke in Bejjur 15 days ago; he added that they would take consideration of the death only when the labourer had marked the muster on that particular day.

He said they were in the process of calling tenders for purchasing 35,000 shades. About 1.5lakh labourers (job seekers) were working against a total 3 lakh active job card holders in the district.      

They fell sick after being affected with sunstroke and died while undergoing treatment or complained of vomiting and diarrhoea at their home.

Naturally, labourers affected with sunstroke, cannot attend work not sigh the muster. A majority of the workers are not drinking sufficient water too due o a shortage of water while some of them were drinking polluted water.

It is the responsibility of the officials concerned to provide drinking water and ORS kits with primary medical aid and to put up shelters at the worksite.

Officials point out that if they could not provide drinking water to the labourers that why were they paying them additional money.

Rythu Athma Hatyala Nivarana Committee district president Sangepu Borranna said the majority of the supervisor (mate) were not carrying the umbrellas supplied by the DWMA in the past to worksite in the villages in mandals like Bhainsa, Dahegoan, Neredigonda and Boath. They were keeping them at home.             

Trees cut, farmhands die like flies in summer

No shades of trees in agriculture fields 

Cutting down of trees, that give shade in the agriculture fields is killing the farmers and farm labourers by dozens.

Faced with the extreme heat and lack of a protective mechanism in the fields, seven of them died of sunstroke in the last 15 days in the Adilabad district alone.   

Farm workers and farmers now and then used to stop work and take rest under the shades of trees tamarind, mango, and neem trees.

That helped them cool their body from the high temperatures. However, with much of such trees cut, the farmhands are forced to work without a shade.

The streams and rivulets that existed near agriculture fields have also vanished over the years. These also used to be of help to farmers, as they kept some part of the agricultural area cool.  

Farmers used to raise trees on ‘Gattlu’(left over the areas) but in recent times, they removed the Gattlu and converted those areas too into agricultural fields to increase the area under crops. Many farmers cut the tree in their agriculture fields and sold to contractors for firewood. So as to make some extra money.

Convenor of the district Athma Hatyala Nivarana committee Sangepu Borranna said as many as 12 NREGS laborers and seven farmers have died of sunstroke in the last 15 days. “The deforestation of agriculture fields started showing its impact on the farmers.

Most of the NREGS labourers and farmers who died after returning home from the work”, he said. He observed that farmers were using umbrellas for shade in their agriculture fields, as there were no trees.

Three deaths fo farmhands occurred in the district in the last five days. Sonerao,45, and Sidam Devrao , 50, of Nandigoan village in Barampur gram panchayat died of sunstroke in Talamadugu mandal and also Jakkula Ramesh,42, Kura village in Jainad mandal died of the same. Jakkula Ramesh was fainted and died while working in his agriculture fields.

Earlier, farmers used to leftover the land enabling the tractors to move freely in the agriculture fields but now space has reduced to allowing only one person to walk.

The number of traditional huts (Manche or Gudise) is coming down in the agriculture fields nearer to mandal headquarters and gram panchayat and such huts were seen now only in interior areas.