Gujarat witnesses five farmers’ suicides in a month as unseasonal rains shatter Saurashtra region

AHMEDABAD: With 42-year-old farmer, Shailesh Devjibhai Savaliya, from Junagadh turning out to be the fifth farmer to die by suicide in just one month, Gujarat’s Saurashtra is reeling under a grim wave of agrarian despair. Unseasonal rains, failed crops, and crushing debt have triggered a chain of tragedies, exposing the widening cracks in the State’s rural crisis despite government relief claims. Savaliya’s suicide tightens the noose of fear that already hangs heavy over the countryside. It comes as a chilling reminder that the agrarian crisis is no longer a distant concern but a relentless, daily reality. Savaliya, a father of two, survived with his ten-and-a-half bigha farmland. He had sown groundnut, onion and tur, hoping for a harvest that could help him repay debts and push his family through another year.Drowning in debt and terrified of the hunger and humiliation awaiting his family, following unseasonal rains, Savaliya walked to his field and consumed poison, an act that echoed the silent scream of thousands battling similar torment. His brother, Prafulbhai Devjibhai Savaliya, broke down talking about the pain behind the tragedy. “Shaileshbhai was shattered. He hid much of his suffering, but we saw the stress killing him every day. He felt cornered, hopeless. Out of sheer despair, he went to the field and drank poison… he believed there was no path ahead for him,” he said.



Source link