In Shivamogga’s island village, a Gram Panchayat president travels 45 km to reach office

Residents of Baruve village want either a barge or a bridge to reach the neighbouring villages in the Sharavathi backwaters

Lalitha Devendrappa, president of Tumari Gram Panchayat in Sagar taluk, travels about 45 km every day from her house in Baruve village to her office in Tumari by bus. On an average, she spends about ₹100 a day on travel whereas her monthly honorarium from the government is only ₹3,000.

“Our panchayat is among the biggest in the State in terms of area and our village is the last point in the panchayat, bordering Hosanagar taluk. Since the village is surrounded by water on three sides, I have to take the only long route available to reach office,” she tells The Hindu.

Baruve village, spread over three hamlets – Elige, Chimule and Kirathodi — has a population of 700 people. A majority among them belong to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.

Villagers, who travel regularly to the panchayat office for various purposes, currently take a long detour and go via Kappagaru and Byakodu to reach their destination. However, this distance would come down to a mere 5 km, if they were provided with a barge or a bridge to cross the Sharavathi backwaters that has created the island.

Following the construction of the Linganamakki dam across the Sharavathi River for power generation, several villages were submerged in the 1960s. Tumari panchayat turned into an island. The people here depend on barges provided by the Department of Ports and Inland Water Transport at Holebagilu, Hasirumakki and Muppane to reach the mainland. Meanwhile, construction of bridges at Holebagilu and Hasirumakki are also going on.  

However, within this island, Baruve village stands separated. Village residents have difficulty reaching their neighbours on the island. “We have been demanding the government to provide us either with a barge or a bridge to reach Tumari,” says Lalitha Devendrappa. The panchayat has also submitted a formal proposal to the government and appealed to Sagar MLA Hartal Halappa. To compound their misery, the villagers do not have phone or internet connectivity. The panchayat president remains incommunicado when she gets home.

The local people argue that the State Government, particularly Karnataka Power Corporation Limited, benefited from the Linganamakki dam. The corporation has earned thousands of crores of rupees in the last 60 years, and should have responded to the woes of people who lost their land and suffered because of the dam project.