A desert nibbles away at Anantapur farmlands

ANANTAPUR: Good news for film producers and location hunters. You need not go to another state in search of a desert.
The desert has come closer to you. Take a bus to Anantapur, which is 400 km away from Hyderabad, and you will see thousands of acres filled with fine sand dotted with desert plants.
The desert in Anantapur, popularly called ‘Isuka Dibbalu’ are located at Kannekal mandal and is about 100 km from Anantapur town and spreads over thousands of acres.According to the residents of the locality, the desert is fast spreading to adjoining villages. The sand has already crossed beyond few villages like Darga Hannur, Meedla Palli among others. In fact, movie directors have already found these sand dunes perfect for desert scenes. Recently a Telugu film Jayam Manadera, had its desert scenes shot from the sand dunes spread along Darga Hannur village.
“The sand is slowly spreading all over the place. This has particularly become very active in the recent years,� B Govinda of Darga Hannur village said.
“Our fields are buried under these sand dunes. I remember some four decades ago there used to be a thin layer of sand along a small stream about two kilometres away from the village but now it has spread everywhere,� he added.
“I own 15 acres of land and nearly five acres have already gone under the sand,� he said. There are nearly 100 houses at this village. About a decade ago 1000 people used to live here but now half of them have migrated to cities like Mumbai, Bangalore leaving old people to fend for themselves, he said.
“It does not make any difference to which party we vote since no one is going to help us out of this situation. The politicians only make promises but they never keep them,� Govinda said.
It is high time that everyone left the village otherwise it is difficult to survive in these sands and government has not even taken note of the dangerous situation that the district is falling in, B Gopal, another villager said.
Even the road which was laid connecting the villages in the area is getting covered under the sand and regularly it need to be removed, he said. “We have been facing sever drought for the past seven years. This year too there are no crops. We don’t know what is in store for us,� he said. Fortunately there is one hand pump for drinking water purposes Even the road which was laid connecting the villages in the area is getting covered under the sand and regularly it need to be removed, he said. “We have been facing sever drought for the past seven years. This year too there are no crops. We don’t know what is in store for us,� he said.
Fortunately there is one hand pump for drinking water purposes in the village, he added. It is impossible to stay in the village from June to August because of heavy sand storms, he said. There are so many schemes but nothing reaches us, another villager said. “We have not benefited from any of the schemes government has announced so far,� he added. The district collector has visited the village once and asked the villagers to start planting trees to stop the desert from spreading all over the place. Ironically, there is no water for planting trees and the government has done nothing to develop greenery.