Phalee stares at grim harvest prospect
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 07 2011:
The villagers of Phalee (earlier known as Phadang) in Ukhrul district have expressed apprehension over the grim prospect of harvesting rice this year as a large chunk of their paddy fields have been ravaged by torrential rain.
This paper carried out a story with picture on its front page of how many parts of paddy fields of the said village were washed away by heavy rainfall that occurred last year in the month of April causing immense hardships to the villagers.
Adding woes to the lives of these villagers, the continuous rainfall that occurred on Oct 2 and 3 this year submerged one third of the total area of land cultivated by the villagers.
"In the last thirty years we have not been hit so hard by torrential rain and this year our paddy fields have been totally damaged by sudden surging wave of water, informed the tormented villagers.
"The efforts of building embankments with all traditional tools at our disposal all these years have become futile as we are not in a position to build dams that can stop the strong flow of water whenever such unpredictable rainfall occurs," said chairman of Lungkhum Luirup Kr Maiphai whose paddy field has also been completely ravaged by the recent torrential rain.
The villagers also decried the alleged lackadaisical attitude of the authority concerned saying that except for the visit of a Lambu last year following damage of paddy field in April, nothing has been done so far to help the affected villagers.
Situated around 22 kms west of Ukhrul headquarters, Phalee village wholly depends on the damaged cultivated land for rice production with most of the villagers depending on paddy cultivation as the only source of livelihood.
As practised by other villages, Phalee also follows the system of paddy cultivation by forming groups of cultivators which cultivators which makes it convenient and easier to collectively work together area-wise in the absence of proper or modern irrigation system for each paddy field.
With a total number of around 650 house holds, the village practises Luirup system (Luirup means group of farmers working collectively) in a particular land area to mainly ensure smooth distribution of water to each paddy field as Thoubal river is the only source of water.
These villagers seasonally build temporary dams to draw water from the river for cultivation and the farmers of this village would work collectively in groups comprising seven Luirups such as Lungkhum, Changri, Huirot, Chihui, Mathuk, Ramrikong and Thingthui.
Apart from Phalee's, paddy fields of surrounding villages like Somdal, Ngainga, Lamlang and Teinem have also been badly affected by the torrential rain.