Farmers of Charotar Lose 'Black Gold' Worth Crores in Floods

Source from:  Bhadran (Gujarat),  07/05/2005

Even as a lull in the rains provided some relief, over 100 submerged villages in the heartland of tobacco-rich Charotar region of flood-affected Anand district of Gujarat are slowly coming to terms with the reality -- losses to their crop which are expected to run into crores of rupees. The flood waters which wreaked havoc in the districts of South and Central Gujarat have submerged and destroyed the entire crop of 'Black Gold' (another name for tobacco here) belonging to about 10,000 farmers living in the tiny hamlet of Bhadran, about 50 km from Anand. "The loss is so phenomenal that it is difficult to describe it in words", Atul Patel, the sarpanch of the village said. "One farmer of our village Manubhai Kushalbhai, alone has lost 6,000 quintals of tobacco after flood waters which were six feet-high drowned our village and seeped into his warehouse", Patel added. "There are over 50 such big underground warehouses in this village alone which were stacked with tobacco crop which is nothing less than Black Gold for us," he said, adding that his village alone produces about 50 thousand quintals of tobbaco leaves. "The loss to our village will be nothing less than five crores," said Madhu Patel, an 84-year-old prominent farmer of the village, who has been through many such adversities. "Today the market price of tobacco is anywhere around Rs 500 for a quintal," Patel added. Enditem