Sugarcane, not IPL that should be banned
posted on Apr 15, 2016 @ 5:25PM
Many people might have felt happy at the smacking of BCCI by the Mumbai high court. Readers are aware that the Mumbai high court has ordered the IPL matches to be conducted outside Maharashtra. The court while delivering the order has strongly felt that the water used to wet the pitches for IPL matches is nothing but wastage of water, while the rest of the state is reeling in drought. Though the common citizens felt happy about the order, experts point out sugarcane to be the major culprit for the ongoing drought season. Maharashtra, called as the Sugar belt of the nation used to grow huge amounts of sugarcane. But very few farmers were aware that it would be a disaster in the long run. As sugarcane needs plenty of water, the farmers began to rely on the ground level water.
Bores were laid down several feet down into the earth and water was extracted without any bounds. Even when the monsoons failed and bores got died, farmers has not resorted either to alternate crops such as cotton that need less water. While cultivating sugarcane, they haven’t tried to use less water more effectively through methods such as drip irrigation. Experts are warning that the farmers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were also resorting to such farming methods without any foresight. They fear that the present drought in Maharashtra might be a warning for the rest of the states in future.