Chapter 9 Command Area Development

9.1 General

Culturable command area of 337717 ha, with annual utilisation of 1952.30 Mm3, is proposed to be irrigated from the Cauvery – Vaigai – Gundar link canal. The development aspects of the proposed command area are discussed in the following sections.

9.1.1 Location and Status of Land in the Command Area

The proposed command area under the Cauvery - Vaigai - Gundar link canal lies in the five basins/sub-basins viz. i) Tirumanimuttar sub-basin, ii) Ponnanai ar sub-basin (both sub basins are of Cauvery basin), iii) Area covered by the streams between Cauvery and Vaigai, iv) Vaigai basin and v) Area covered by the streams between Vaigai and Vaippar basins. The command area is spread in 7 districts of Tamilnadu as detailed in Table 9.1. Table 9.1 Details of Command Area

Sl. Districts Taluks No. 1. 1) Krishnarayapuram, 2) 2. Tiruchchirappalli 1) Srirangam, 2) Tiruchchirappalli 3. 1) Kulathur, 2) Pudukkottai, 3) Gandarvakkottai, 4) Alangudi, 5) Arantangi, 6) Thirumayam, 7) Avudayarkoil 4. 1) , 2) , 3) , 4) Sivaganga, 5) Manamadurai, 6) Ilaiyankudi 5. 1) , 2) , 3) Kamudi, 4) Ramanathapuram, 5) Kadaladi, 6) Mudukulathur 6. 1) Tiruchuli, 2) Kariyapatti, 3) 7. 1) Vilathikulam

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The Gross Command Area under the link canal is 605123 ha. After excluding the land under forests, scrubs and barren land from the area, the area available for irrigation is 451606 ha. However, due to constraints in availability of water, an area of 337717 ha can only be irrigated annually and hence this area is considered as culturable command area under the link canal. The particulars in the proposed command area are given in Table 9.2.

Table 9.2 Particulars of the Proposed Command Area

Sl. No. Particulars of the command area Area (lakh ha) 1. Gross geographical area 6.35 2. Gross command area 6.05 3. Culturable command area 4.52 4. Currently irrigated area under all 1.11 sources (i.e. wells/tanks/canals/ other sources) 5. Balance CCA available for new 3.41 irrigation 6. CCA considered under this link canal 3.38

9.1.2 Topography and Soils

The Cauvery – Vaigai - Gundar link canal forms the upper boundary on the western side of the proposed command area. The New Kattalai high level canal forms the lower boundary in the initial reach upto RD 70 km. The Grand Anicut canal forms the eastern boundary upto the Vellar river crossing. The FSL of the link canal running from North to South varies from 100.750 m at its entry on the North to 75.688 m at its exit on the South. The ground in the command area slopes down from the link canal to the North till it crosses the ridge of Cauvery basin, thereafter it slopes towards East coast upto Bay of Bengal. The topography of the command area generally slopes down to the East coast. Isolated patches of reserved forest are lying within the command area. The entire area is criss - crossed by many small and medium natural drains. The available soils in the proposed command area are mainly red sandy clay loam, brown clay loam, alluvial soils and black clay soils. The black clay and brown clay soils are more predominant and the other soils cover only smaller areas. The soils are shallow in the initial reaches of the command area, while they are moderately deep-to-deep in the lower gradually sloping portion of the command area. The lands in the area are

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generally fertile and the crop yield is likely to increase substantially under irrigation.

9.1.3 Existing Land use

Agriculture is the mainstay of the people in the proposed command area. As per the taluk wise land use data available for the year1996-97, the forest area in the command is 29803 ha, and the culturable area is 451606 ha. The gross sown area is 219073 ha, (within the command area of 337717 ha) which is 36.20% of the gross command area of 605123 ha. The double cropped area i.e. cropped both in kharif and rabi seasons is 23446 ha, while the cropped area in rabi season is 195627 ha.

9.1.4 Cropping Practices

The agriculture in the proposed command area is mainly rainfed at present. The principal crops grown in the area are paddy, jowar, maize, ragi, pulses, cotton, vegetables and chillies.

Taking into consideration, the prevailing agricultural practices, soil and other characteristics of the area, the cropping pattern to be followed for the proposed command area has been devised, which is dealt in detail under section 8.4.3 of Chapter on “Water and Irrigation Planning”.

9.1.5 Present Sources of Irrigation

The present sources of irrigation within the command are wells and tanks. The source-wise irrigation details are dealt in Chapter on “Water and Irrigation Planning”. There is no major/medium irrigation project in the command area.

The predominant crop is paddy with other major crops being groundnut, chillies, jowar and maize. The suggested cropping pattern for irrigation in the command area has been devised to consist of all these crops traditionally grown in the area.

9.1.6 Groundwater Resources

The proposed command area lies in the districts of Karur, Tiruchchirappalli, Pudukkottai, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar and Thoothukudi of . The ground water potential in the command, estimated on pro rata basis from the district-

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wise groundwater resources as on January 2003 published by CGWB, is furnished in Table 9.3.

Table 9.3 Ground Water Potential in the Proposed Command Area

District Area Area Estima Provisio Utilisable Net Balance of Within -ted -n for Ground draft available district Comm Potent Drinking water for -and -ial Water resources exploit- and for ation Other irrigation ( km2) ( km2) (Mm3) uses (Mm3) (Mm3) (Mm3)

(Mm3) Karur 2896 32 4 - 1 2 2 Tiruch- 4404 57 9 - 3 6 3 chirappalli Pudukkotta 4663 1252 233 6 177 56 177 i Sivaganga 4189 2111 410 11 346 65 345 Ramanatha 4090 2053 168 5 106 62 106 -puram Virudhu 4243 466 52 3 17 35 17 nagar Thoothu- 4591 81 4 - 1 3 1 kudi Total 6052 880 25 651 229 651 Source: Report on Dynamic Ground Water Resources of Tamilnadu as on January 2003 published by CGWB & PWD Govt. of Tamilnadu.

The fluctuations in the ground water levels as observed in the pre monsoon and post monsoon seasons by the Central Ground Water Board in various observation wells in and around the proposed command area are given in Table 9.4.

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Table 9.4 Fluctuation in the Ground Water Levels

Sl. Name of the Taluk Depth of groundwater No. Observation level below GL in 'm' Well (Year 2003) Pre Post monsoon monsoon 1 Mayanur Karur 8.45 8.44 2 Alangudi Pudukkottai 17.49 9.08 3 Avudayarkoil 1 Pudukkottai 3.31 3.37 4 Manamelkudi 1 Pudukkottai 3.90 3.76 5 Nakkudi 1 Pudukkottai 5.42 5.29 6 Pudukkottai 1 Pudukkottai 5.20 3.90 7 Pudupatti (east) Pudukkottai 15.46 4.93 8 Chettinadu Sivaganga 5.45 6.21 9 Devakottai 1 Sivaganga 7.08 6.05 10 Ilalyankudi Sivaganga 6.24 5.45 11 Karaikudi Sivaganga 6.21 5.97 12 Manamadurai 2 Sivaganga 5.09 5.44 13 Puduvoyal Sivaganga 17.06 19.28 14 Sivaganga 1 Sivaganga 12.90 12.97 15 Bogalur Ramanathapuram 6.75 7.45 16 Kilkkarai Ramanathapuram 7.80 10.00 17 Mandapam Ramanathapuram 1.72 3.50 18 Nadumanaikadu Ramanathapuram 2.08 3.35 19 Nainarkoil Ramanathapuram 6.77 0.00 20 Perungulam Ramanathapuram 2.58 4.30 21 R.S. mangalam Ramanathapuram 6.02 0.95 22 Sayalkudi Ramanathapuram 5.89 7.70 23 Solandur Ramanathapuram 3.05 1.07 24 Thangachimadam Ramanathapuram 3.00 5.65 25 Tiruvadanai 1 Ramanathapuram 3.19 3.77 26 U.Kosamangai Ramanathapuram 2.52 5.77 27 Uchipulli Ramanathapuram 1.20 3.06 28 Aruppukkottai-n Virudhunagar 8.91 9.73

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The Central Ground Water Board has carried out a pilot study on the hydrogeological surveys on the Godavari (Polavaram) – Krishna (Vijayawada) link canal project proposed by NWDA for assessing the possible changes/effects on groundwater scenario in the command area due to introduction of surface water irrigation. As per their recommendations, 20% of the transmission losses and 40% of the water applied for irrigation will add to the groundwater regime in the proposed command area by way of infiltration, canal seepage and return flow from irrigation. Ground water estimation methodology (1997) suggests the recharge as 30% of water applied for non-paddy area and 50% for paddy area. In case of Cauvery (Kattalai) – Vaigai - Gundar link canal, the transmission losses have been worked out to be 114.70 Mm3 and the utilisation for the enroute irrigation is 1952.30 Mm3. Since the formations in the present link are almost same (except in the middle reaches) as that of Polavaram – Vijayawada link (alluvial), the percentage for recharge has been considered same. The recharge values, therefore, works out to be:

Recharge from transmission losses @ 20% = 22.94 Mm3 Recharge from water applied for irrigation @ 33% = 644.26 Mm3 Total quantum of recharge = 667.20 Mm3

9.2 Socio-economic Aspects

The socio-economic aspects of the command area discussed hereunder are based on the district-wise statistics of the Karur, Tiruchchirappalli, Pudukkottai, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar and Thoothukudi districts falling in the command area.

9.2.1 Population and Major Occupations

The command area is spread over 2 taluks of Karur district, 2 taluks of Tiruchchirappalli district, 7 taluks of Pudukkottai district, 6 taluks of , 6 taluks of , 3 taluks of Virudhunagar district and 1 taluk of Thoothukudi district of Tamilnadu State. The population of the command area as worked out on proportionate area basis from the taluk-wise population census 2001 is 18.95 lakh of which the urban population is 6.00 lakh and rural population is 12.95 lakh. Thus the proposed command area is predominantly rural. The occupational distribution of the population for Karur, Tiruchchirappalli, Pudukkottai, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar and Thoothukudi districts is furnished in Table 9.5.

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Table 9.5 Occupational distribution of the population

Percentage of population Occu- Sl. pational Karur Tiruch- Pudu- Siva- Rama- Virudh Thoo- No category chira- kkott- ganga natha- unagar Thuk- palli ai puram udi Main 1 47.60 38.47 36.40 35.18 36.58 45.82 37.35 workers Marginal 2 5.41 5.72 10.24 9.10 7.42 4.46 5.68 workers Non- 3 46.99 55.81 53.36 55.72 56.00 58.64 56.97 workers Cultiva- 4 11.44 9.16 17.08 16.30 15.17 4.85 4.55 tors 5 Agricul- tural 20.09 14.05 15.83 12.47 10.52 11.26 10.69 labourers 6 No. of cultivators 1.07 2.19 2.48 1.88 1.80 0.85 0.71 (in lakh) 7 No. of agricultural 1.88 3.36 2.30 1.44 1.24 1.97 1.67 labourers (in lakh)

The taluka-wise percentage of the agricultural workers to the total workers for all the taluks of the proposed command area are given in Table 9.6.

Table 9.6 Taluk-wise Distribution of Workers

Percentage of total labour Sl. District / Taluk Agricultural No. Cultivators Others labour Tiruchchirappalli District 1 Karur 25 35 40 2 Kulithalai incl. Krishnarayapuram 31 52 17 3 Tiruchchirappalli incl. Srirangam 9 15 76

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Pudukkottai District 4 Kulathur 49 27 24 5 Gandarvakkottai 53 36 11 6 Pudukkottai 27 13 60 7 Alangudi 53 30 17 8 Thirumayam 51 26 23 9 Arantangi 49 30 21 10 Avudayarkoil 56 19 25 Sivaganga District 11 Tirupattur 41 37 22 12 Karaikudi 31 21 48 13 Devakottai 55 18 27 14 Sivaganga 46 32 22 15 Manamadurai 40 34 26 16 Ilaiyankudi 64 21 15 Ramanathapuram District 17 Tiruvadanai 61 18 21 18 Paramakudi 46 23 31 19 Kamudi 54 31 15 20 Mudukulathur 60 23 17 21 Ramanathapuram 33 20 47 Virudhunagar District 22 Tiruchuli 63 27 10 23 Aruppukkottai 30 30 40 Thoothukudi District 24 Vilathikulam NA NA NA

9.2.2 Land Holdings

The classification of the farmers of the command area according to the land holdings is presented in Table 9.7.

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Table 9.7 Classification of Farmers Based on Land Holdings

Category of Size of land Percentage Sl.No. Farmers Holding 1. Marginal Below 2 ha 92.14 2. Small 2 to 4 ha 5.72 3. Medium 4 to 10 ha 1.89 4. Large Above 10 ha 0.25 Total 100%

9.2.3 Land Tenure

Agriculture is the mainstay of the population in the proposed command area. The land ownership status of the house holds of these districts is furnished in Table 9.8. Table 9.8 Land Ownership Status of House Holds

Sl. No. of No. of land Percentage District No households holdings 1. Karur & 964819 8931 0.93 Tiruchchirappalli incl. 2. Pudukkottai 274489 114536 41.73 3. Sivaganga 242059 153164 63.28 4. Ramanathapuram 244424 176607 72.25 5. Virudhunagar 375747 33195 8.83 6. Thoothukudi 334570 4657 1.39

9.2.4 House Hold Income

Major portion of the population of the command is dependent on agriculture. Among the population engaged on agriculture, nearly 56% are agricultural labour. Among the cultivators owning lands also, the marginal farmers holding less than 2 ha, are in majority. From the above, it is clear that the present levels of household income is marginal in case of many households. The introduction of irrigation in the proposed command area could be expected to boost the household income.

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9.2.5 Availability of Agricultural Labour

About 56% of the work force available in the proposed command area is agricultural labourers and they would be adequate even after introduction of irrigation.

9.3 Identification of Problems in the Command Area a) Physical Problems

There are no significant physical problems in the command area. The soils in the command area are suitable for growing the proposed crops. As the area is well drained by the existing natural drainages and the ground water table fluctuates sufficiently below the root zone of the crops, the drainage and water logging problems are anticipated to be minimal. b) Financial Problems

No financial problem could be foreseen. The farmers are already in the field of agriculture. With the introduction of assured irrigation supplies under the link project, more inputs have to be put in, to achieve greater yields. This may call for more finances. Since the present policy of the government both at central and state levels is aimed at growing more food and achieving self-sufficiency by providing every conceivable assistance to the farmers, the locally available banks and other financial institutions could be expected to be geared-up to provide the increased timely financial assistance to the farmers.

9.4 Infrastructure Facilities a) Railways and Roads

The command area is well connected by roads and railways. The National highway No. 49 connecting and and a broad gauge railway line connecting the two district head quarters viz. Tiruchchirappalli and Madurai passes through the command area. In addition two metre gauge railway lines connecting Rameswaram with Tiruchchirappalli and Tiruvarur and Madurai also pass through the command area. A good network of major district roads and other roads connecting the taluk head quarters and other smaller towns already exists in the command area.

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b) Marketing Facilities

There are 27 big towns including Pudukkottai and Ramanathapuram, the headquarters of Pudukkottai and Ramanathapuram districts, having good marketing facilities with communication network for transport. These places do have enough facilities to sell their agricultural food and non- food produce. Besides this, good number of outlets for the supply of the agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to the farmers to meet their requirements are already in existence in the command area. c) Financial Institutions

There are 108 financial institutions in and around the command area, which include nationalised banks, rural, and commercial banks and co- operative banks. These institutions provide the financial assistance to the farmers for meeting their agricultural expenses, purchase of livestock, acquisition of new lands, improvement of land and drainage and other necessities. d) Medical Facilities

There are about 60 hospitals and 200 public health centre within the proposed command area of this link project.

9.5 Command Area Development Works a) Land Development

The terrain of the proposed command area is mostly plain with small undulations, except in minor areas in the upper portion of the command area. The land levelling and its preparation to receive the irrigation supplies may have to be taken up with active participation of the beneficiary farmers. The cost of levelling and the preparation of land could be made to be borne by the farmers themselves, and for land development banks can provide the required loans to be recovered in easy installments. b) Field Channels

Field channels will have to be constructed through the entire ayacut of the canals to carry the irrigation supplies to the fields. Again active participation of the farmers for the work is called for, which could be planned simultaneously with the land levelling works.

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c) Field Drainage to Prevent Water Logging

The command is about 10 km away from the sea coast in its lower portion and though the pre- monsoon groundwater table is about 17.49 m below the ground level, the average post- monsoon water table is around 19.28 m below the ground level. However, any rise in the water table in the command area will have to be thoroughly watched after introduction of irrigation. Further, to avoid the possibility of water logging in the command, it is necessary to resort to conjunctive use of surface and ground waters to enhance the irrigation intensity and also to bring down the groundwater level below the root zone of the crops. d) Farm Roads

The existing road network to reach various parts of the command is sufficient. However, after introduction of irrigation, some new farm roads will be required to be layed and old village roads will have to be realigned for better accessibility to the villages and agricultural fields. e) Other Facilities

In addition to the above development works, marketing and ware housing facilities, credit facilities from banks, easy availability of agriculture inputs, consolidation of land holdings will have to be thoroughly planned and developed / organised for proper command area development. It is also pertinent to develop other facilities concerning the health, education, protected drinking water supply, communications etc. for the general betterment of the living standards of the population of the command area.

9.6 Assessment of Likely Economic Impact

With the introduction of irrigation in the command area, the total produce is expected to increase from 237 to 1123 TMT. A direct benefit of Rs. 23260 per ha from the proposed command area is estimated against Rs. 5266 per ha in the present un-irrigated condition. The increase in income is Rs. 17994 per ha.

From an annual irrigation of 337717 ha, an additional employment of about 16 million man days are expected to be created in agricultural activities. Due to increase in production of food grains and oil seeds,

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more rice mills and oil mills are likely to come up in the area. Further, higher production of fodder crops will result in an increase in livestock. As a result of this, dairy farms are likely to come up, which will further increase the income of the households in this area. Small scale agro- industries under self-employment scheme will have brighter prospects due to increase in agricultural activities.

After introduction of irrigation, the income from agricultural and allied industries will increase and standard of living of people in the area is expected to improve substantially with the anticipated increase in the per capita income. Tremendous socio-economic development with improvement in literacy, communications, economic activities, public health, protected drinking water, employment potential etc. in the area could be foreseen. In short, the link scheme could be a boon to the people of the command area.

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