Hubballi: They are fleeing to Bengaluru, Mangaluru and even Goa. The drought having made their lives miserable in villages, thousands of farmers are flocking to the railway stations and bus stands in Hubballi, Gadag, Bagalkot and Dharwad, hoping to find work in cities and feed their families.
Several poor farmers are even travelling ticket-less to leave their villages, forcing the authorities to conduct raids on the trains.
Eranna Karadikolla, 35 who was forced to leave his drought-prone Hirevaddatti village in Mundaragi taluk of Gadag district ,is now working as a construction labourer in Bengaluru, along with his wife and brother.
They have been living in a makeshift hut provided by the contractor at the construction site as they can't afford to pay the high rent demanded for a house in the city. As many as 30 families from the village have moved to either Bengaluru or Dakshina Kannada in search of work owing to the drought, he explains.
"We have no work in our village as the crops have dried up in the absence of rain. So our entire family moved to Bengaluru two months ago," says Erranna. He now earns Rs 450 a day and his wife, Rs 150 in the city. But even this is hardly enough to run his family due to the high cost of living , he laments. Thirty-three year old dalit farmer, Anand Chahwan , from Hiremagi village in Hungund taluk of Bagalkot district now works in a farmhouse with his wife and two children near Varthur in Bengaluru. He left his viillage as his jowar and maize crops withered causing him a loss of over Rs 30,000.
"My family is at least served two free meals a day here by our employer. We have been working at the farmhouse for wages of Rs 12,000 a month. There is also no drinking water problem here unlike back home where we had to dig lakes and rivers to fetch water," says Anand.
"I have sold my cattle due to drinking water scarcity and shortage of fodder and am now working for a private company as a delivery boy in Bengaluru,” says farmer Mahesh Kharjagi of Shirahatti in Gadag district, who hopes to return home in June when the monsoon arrives to begin sowing his four acre farmland.
