Vinod Ahirwar was hanging from a tree on his field in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district
In what is possibly the worst sight for a mother, 58-year-old Choti Bai found her son, Vinod Ahirwar, hanging from a tree on his fields in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district on Sunday.
Due to drought, the 32-year-old farmer's soyabean crop failed and a debt of Rs 2 lakh seemed impossible to repay.
"My son did return on Saturday, the next day when we found him he was dead. There was no yield this year. In the family there was no problem. He was worried about the finances because of crop failure," Choti Bai said.
Almost 70 per cent area of Sagar has been drought affected and eight farmers have killed themselves in the last month; 15 others have attempted suicide. Most farmers who are debt ridden feel an early drought announcement would have meant timely help as most of them have no money to prepare for the Rabi crop.
"Drought was evident for the last few months. Collector now says in next three weeks we will get compensation, which means not before a month and still there is no surety that we will get the compensation," says farmer Kamlesh Tiwari.
The Sagar district administration has sought a relief package of Rs 190 crore from the state government. It disagrees with the farmers that it reacted late and also refuses to accept losses in farming has led to the suicides.
"Seven-eight farmer suicide cases have come to me. Farmers had family problems and loan was one of the reasons. Crop failure is not the main reason," Sagar Collector Ashok Singh Thakur told NDTV.