RAIPUR: The sky is overcast. The fields are lush with paddy. A good harvest beckons and to complete the picture of a rural idyll, Chhattisgarh has posted zero farmer suicides for the year 2011. For a state that has consistently reported the highest rate of farmer suicides in India, with 1773 cases in 2008, 1802 in 2009, and 1126 in 2010, eliminating farmer suicides would be a thundering achievement. But a ground investigation shows this may be nothing more than a statistical feat.

Half an hour's drive from the state capital, in Seoni village in Abhanpur, Tulsi Ram Gond's world came apart last year when his baby daughter was diagnosed with a hole in her heart. The hospital gave an estimate of one and half lakh rupees for the surgery. "He was told the government helps out in such cases but he didn't know where to go looking for help," says Durpad Bai, Tulsi Ram's mother. On the night of 18th December 2012, the 30-year-old tribal farmer gulped pesticide in his small brick quarter, dying within hours; his baby daughter died a few months later. Within days, a dozen claimants, including representatives of the local bank, the village society and countless others, showed up at the doorstep demanding repayment for loans worth 1,85,500 rupees.

Poverty, mounting debt, catastrophic health expenses - the marg jayaram or death register maintained by the local police station records the circumstances of Tulsi Ram's death in great detail, along with the fact that he did not own the land he cultivated, and was a khetihar mazdoor or farm labourer. In reality, he was a sharecropper, cultivating 4 acres of borrowed land. It isn't clear whether Tulsi Ram was finally categorized by the local police as 'Farmer', or 'Other', but the saal tamaam or annual report prepared by Abhanpur police, and seen by TOI, records 12 cases of farmer suicides in 2011. This report was sent to the police headquarters in Raipur, but as the final state-wide compilation submitted to the National Crime Records Bureau shows, the data was lost in transmission.

Defending the discrepancies, the additional director-general of police, Ram Niwas, says, "We found that constables in police stations were making mistakes in entering data. Even traders and businessmen were being shown as farmers. So we have corrected the mistakes in the police headquarters."

Those tracking farmer suicides are not surprised. "States are fudging data to conceal the extent of farmer suicides, either at the primary level, or at the state level," says Dr G V Ramanjaneyulu, agricultural scientist at the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture. Analysis of Chhattisgarh's data by Right to Food activist Manas Ranjan shows that while suicides listed under the category of 'Self-employed (Farming/Agriculture)' have been decreasing, suicides listed under the category of 'Self-employed (Other)' and 'Óther' have been rising, indicating that farmer suicides are simply being concealed under categories that are less noticeable and less politically sensitive.

Despite reporting the highest rate of farmer suicides in India for years, there are no clear studies documenting farming distress in Chhattisgarh. On the surface, farming in the predominantly paddy-growing state is less insecure, compared with the neighbouring cotton-growing region of Vidarbha. The state government buys bulk of the paddy produce at ever-rising minimum support prices. But agricultural expert Sanket Thakur has pointed out that paddy growers of Chhattisgarh are typically small and marginal farmers, and if not the vagaries of market, the vagaries of monsoon are enough to bring them down.

In the first week of 2012, Sevak Ram, a farmer in Khapri village in Baloda Bazaar district, walked out of his home to attend to his fields, but was found next morning in the meadows, dangling from a palaash tree. His family and friends speak in muted tones when asked why he ended his life. No reason, they say. But as the conversation turns to the state of agriculture, they become animated, discussing the rising prices of fertilizers and pesticides, and the uncertainty of rains and crop returns. “It didn't rain enough last year. We only managed to harvest half the crop,” says Jayant Ram, Sevak Ram's brother. At the local police station, last year's death register records 25 suicides, of which 7 are listed as 'Housewives', one as 'Student', another as 'Unemployed', and the remaining 16 are simply noted as 'agyaat' or 'unknown'.