Due to contamination during the construction of the Mumbai-Goa highway, 200 acres of farmland in Kasu village, close to Pen, are experiencing a serious agricultural disaster. According to local farmers, the contamination has had a serious negative impact on crop health and resulted in previously unheard-of skin illnesses in agricultural workers.
Local farmer Bhagwan Jambhale, who owns roughly ten acres of land, expressed disbelief at the circumstances. “We have never encountered such crop issues before,” he remarked. “When I noticed blackish water in my farmland, I was taken aback.” This year, it has completely destroyed my rice harvest. After sixty years of farming in KharBurdi village in Kasu, Jambhale’s family usually produces eight to ten tonnes of rice a year. “This year, we couldn’t get even a kilogramme of rice,” said Jambhale.
Farmers have asked the clearance of chemically tainted soil, the closing of illegal canals, and action against the firms involved in a letter addressed to the Pen magistrate and also addressed to the President of India, the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister, and the Deputy Chief Minister.
Local agriculture official Sagar Wadkar carried out a survey in July in response to the concerns, and he then sent a report to higher authorities. The report emphasised that the entry of chemically laden soil into the farmlands is the cause of the contamination in the fields. It also mentioned how chemicals and sand that had gotten into the soil had burned away the rice crops. The officer has suggested that the agriculture department do a post-monsoon soil analysis and an evaluation of the soil’s pollutants to the environment department.
Source: Hindustan Times
