In fact, on November 17, Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association general secretary Mannarkudi S Ranganathan met district officials to urge them to release more water as the monsoon was yet to set in, though it had been a month into the season. “I told the District Collector our crops were withering, fields cracking up for want of water. Two days later, we received mild showers, followed by good rains (28.64 mm and 21.12 mm respectively) on the next days. But we never expected what was to follow.”

Aided by the cyclonic storm Nisha, the first one of such intensity to hit the Tamil Nadu coast in 31 years, the district received 158.3 mm, 219.06 mm and 99.59 mm of rain on three days, starting from November 26. Pamaniar — a tributary of Cauvery — and Koraiyar, two irrigation-cum-floodwater channels running parallel to each other, breached their banks as the inflow rose to nearly four times their capacity. Soon, water levels in the paddy fields were up by as much as 12 feet.

“We receive an average of 1,230 mm every year, whereas we received 476.95 mm in just three days,” District Collector M Chandrasekaran explained. Lying downstream in the Cauvery delta, floodwater from the region accumulated in Thiruvarur, causing massive damage.

The fury of Nisha that fed on the warm waters off the state’s coast was more direct on the lives of people like Anbazhagan. In the mid-90s, this diploma holder in electrical and electronics engineering dropped out in the third year of BE and went to the Gulf after spending over Rs 1 lakh. “I returned this year when the going got tough there, thinking that I will try agriculture again. Who would have thought my fortunes will change like this in just three days,” he said, standing next to his 4.5-acre field.

Though paddy can to some extent resist damages causes by excess water, over five-six days of inundation would result in reduced yield at the time of harvest, said agriculture experts. “After the water level goes down, the plant will continue to have a vegetative growth with a strong, green look. The real impact would be known during harvest time, when more than half the grains will be chaff,” said Mayilvahanan, the Assistant Director of Agriculture in Mannarkudi. “They are like stillborn babies,” he added, putting the “colossal problem” in human context.

Many are worse off. When the waters finally receded from Dakshinamoorthy’s five acres, he was left with just decaying crop. “Today, four of us cut some firewood and got a bottle of rum in return.” Finishing it early in the evening, he is back at the local wine shop with borrowed money to drink more, apparently to drown his worries. He had spent Rs 23 on a kilo of seed, of which he had sowed 30 kgs per acre. Then there were other inputs like fertilisers and pesticides, besides hard work for several months.

Incredibly, he is among the lucky ones. Arunachalam, an old man at Palavaay village, sported a white shirt and dhoti, the only pair left after his hut collapsed in the rain. His small agricultural plot is still marooned and all the 21 goats he reared for a supplementary income are dead. Clutching a set of photographs of his dead goats, he now waits by the road for some official to come by.

However, the impending general election has turned out to be a silver lining for the farming community. The state Government, anxious to retain maximum number of seats that the ruling alliance won during the last election, has directed the district administrations of the Cauvery delta region to act swiftly to help the public. The state has also decided to extend the last date for paying the crop insurance premium. The Government, said sources, sympathetically considered the representation from farmers who were unable to come out during heavy showers or mobilise even the premium of Rs 265.

Meanwhile, saddled with the priority of saving as many lives as possible and managing nearly six lakh persons in as many as 505 relief camps, the administration is stretched. “We are calculating the overall losses suffered by the farmers and others in the district. Our initial estimates show that 3,35,215 houses were submerged, nearly 1.5 lakh hectares of crop affected, about 1,000 km of roads damaged and 139 bridges and culverts affected badly,” Chandrasekaran said.