Mysuru: At first glance its fields seem lush and green following the first spell of rain brought by the South West Monsoon. But look closer and you see there’s no one tilling them, and even the road leading to Aralikattehundi village in Nanjangud taluk has almost disappeared.
Dilapidated houses line its deserted streets and some with large courtyards open to the sky, huge pillars and earthen chimneys stand forlorn, providing testimony to a time when it was filled with people going about their chores and its homes echoed with the laughter of children .
Some 64 km from Mysuru, the village, located in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s constituency of Varuna, has neither suffered an epidemic nor an earthquake. But 56 of its 60 families have migrated, leaving it abandoned and desolate owing to the drought of the last few years that rained misery on them.
With the ground water table depleting to 900 feet, a 30 ft deep well is dry and 40 other borewells have become defunct. With the people deserting it, the village is said to be now populated more by snakes and mongooses. But one man, Nageswara Siddaveerappa Mariswamy continues to do pooja to the statue of Nageswara swamy under the shade of trees in the village centre.
“He does the pooja at his own expense in the hope that the village will revive one day. I know my people will come back and we will live happily like we did years ago,” says 70 year old Madegowda, greeting you with a cup of water.
While his three children too have left like other people of the village, the old man and his wife have refused to move out. Three other families, who remain, travel to Mysuru to work as daily wage labourers.
“Our village was not like this. We celebrated 12 festivals in 12 months and people from the neighbouring villages came to us to buy their monthly rations. But ours is a dry land and with little rain over the past 25 years the ground water has depleted, and the borewells have gone defunct. With wild boar and deer from nearby forests spoiling our crops people have left and now over the past five years, the entire village has emptied thanks to the severe drought,” he recounts.
The old man is, however, hopeful that with the government planning to revive three lakes in his gram panchayat, people will want to come back.
“Mr Siddaramaiah’s son, Dr S Yatindra recently visited our village and assured us that our houses will be rebuilt,” he adds.
