Already reeling under declining returns from farming and diminishing cultivable land, Haryana farmers are now grappling with waterlogging. Pushed against the wall after successive crop losses, they are desperate for solutions.
A farmer, Jai Singh, approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) after waterlogging rendered his fields in Bhiwani’s Pur village uncultivable. Acting on his plea, the NGT has directed the state government to take remedial action within six months by bringing in all authorities concerned and stakeholders on board.
The NGT’s principal Bench comprising judicial member Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi, expert members Dr A Senthil Vel and Dr Afroz Ahmad, on May 4, directed the Chief Secretary to examine and act upon an environmental petition highlighting the crises of large-scale waterlogging as well as severe groundwater depletion across the state.
The over 200-page petition has raised the issue relating to environment, including soil salinisation and over-extraction of water.
The applicant, a medium farmer, claimed that his land was affected by persistent waterlogging, resulting in reduced crop productivity, degradation of soil fertility and financial distress. He traced the present environmental crisis to the transformation during the Green Revolution, when high-yielding variety seeds, irrigation-intensive cultivation and excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides were promoted as the wheat-rice cycle came to dominate the cropping pattern.
He said excessive dependence on canal irrigation and groundwater extraction had created a long-term hydrological imbalance, whereby certain regions of Haryana were facing waterlogging and salinity due to canal seepage, over-irrigation and poor drainage, whereas other regions were suffering from severe groundwater depletion.
Dr Ram Kumar, a retired scientist from Ch Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (HAU), said the wheat-paddy cycle was mainly responsible for the hydrological imbalance. “One acre paddy field requires 1,600 mm water for irrigation in one season. But overall, the state has an average of 500 mm rainfall, which means we have to provide additional 1,100 mm water to the paddy field per season. This is the main problem,” he said.
Naveen Bamel, one of the lawyers who filed the petition, said the applicant had sought the constitution of an appropriate authority/multidisciplinary scientific committee for a comprehensive state-wide scientific survey.
The NGT’s directions on the application by the farmer has gained significance in the wake of the prevailing situation in Haryana, as farmers in Hisar, Bhiwani, Rohtak, Charkhi Dadri, Fatehabad and other districts have missed two successive crops after last year’s rainfall that caused severe waterlogging in these districts.
Inderjit Singh, a farmer activist, said they had held a mahapanchayat on May 13 at Arya Nagar village, Hisar, to press for measures, including the strengthening of embankments of drains and canals, to drain out the standing water to save crops. “After previous kharif, the farmers also could not grow rabi crop. In some villages, the farmers are also unable to cultivate rabi crops as the water is still standing,” he said.
Waterlogging was also leading to salinity, which rendered agricultural land uncultivable, he said, adding that as per a government report, 9,82,740 acres in districts including Rohtak, Jhajjar, Charkhi Dadri, Sonepat, Bhiwani, Hisar and Fatehabad were affected.