Prawn ponds eat into paddy fields in Akiveedu

Akiveedu: Even as people are agitating for drinking water in some area or the other, conversion of farm lands into prawn ponds is going unchecked in Akiveedu, Undi and Kalla mandals in the district.

In order to get salinity, the prawn pond owners have been drilling bores in farm lands up to 300 feet. Though there is no official clearance for such bores, the farmers cultivating prawns have been indulging in illegal drilling.

A majority of lands, where paddy was the main crop, have been converted into salt ponds.

They were indulging in such acts irrespective of the fact that once conversion of the lands into prawn pond, the lands would never be turned suitable for paddy cultivation.

In the recent times, the containers of prawns exported to other countries were rejected because of cancer-causing virus traced in the prawns. This way, the farmers incurred huge losses in these mandals.

Contrary to change of crop to get profits, the prawn farmers continue to depend on prawn cultivation.

They were maintaining two type of bores to pump water into the ponds. In the initial stages of prawn cultivation, they have been filling the ponds with salt-free water. In advanced stages, they have been pumping salt water from deep bore wells.

After recent loss to prawn farmers, they seem to learn no lesson as the number of farmers converting paddy fields into prawn ponds continue to rise.

If this happens without knowledge to authorities, the entire agriculture fields would be turned permanently into prawn ponds.