Five farmers took their lives in Maharashtra in the three days to Monday.
The wave of farmer suicides in the rain-shadow regions of Marathwada and Vidarbha continues unabated despite the new Bharatiya Janata Party government announcing relief measures to combat the agricultural crisis affecting more than 19,000 villages in the State.
Three consecutive years of drought and unseasonable rain have broken the spirit of farmers.
Reports say changing weather patterns, mounting indebtedness and poor crop yield are driving farmers to suicide.
Tulsidas Madalwad, a minor farmer, electrocuted himself at Kakandi village in Nanded district unable to pay off the debts accumulated over multiple bad harvests on his two-acre farm. “He returned from his field and electrocuted himself by stringing wires to his feet around 10 a.m. When his wife and little daughter came with food, they found him charred to death,” a villager said.
Madalwad was devastated by the destruction of his soya bean crop and was worried about repaying more than Rs. 1 lakh to banks and local moneylenders, the people said.
In the neighbouring Latur district, Sangram Bemde, 46, another marginal farmer, immolated himself on Monday after his cotton crop failed for the third consecutive year, traumatising his family and relatives.
Kashiram Indore, 76, built a pyre and jumped into it on Friday following the poor soya bean yield from his one-acre farm at Manarkhed in Akola. Indore was despondent as just a quintal and a half of soya bean could be harvested this year.
The Javadekar family of Javda in Buldhana is facing the grimmest winter after their only son, Shivshankar, 24, hanged himself on Saturday evening as he could not repay the Rs. 60,000 loan his family took after their two-acre farm faced consecutive years of drought.
Family members said Shivshankar was aspiring to pursue higher education. Another farmer too committed suicide in the district.
