Farmer hangs self in Kota, fifth suicide in a month in Rajasthan’s Hadauti region

jaipur

Updated: Jul 07, 2017 20:43 IST

A farmer hanged himself in Budhadeet area of Kota district on Friday, allegedly distressed over low prices of garlic crop.

This is the fifth farmer suicide in Hadauti region of Rajasthan in the last one month.

Police said Banwarilal Malav (48) of Kishanganj village in Kota rural was found hanging in a room in the cattle yard of his house.

The dead farmer’s wife screamed after seeing her husband hanging in the room, prompting family members to rush to the spot. Banwarilal was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.

In a suicide note, recovered from the farmer’s pocket, he called his act as his mistake and “wish of god.”

Budhadeet police station head constable Lakshminarayan said the body was handed over the family for last rites after an autopsy. The family has not cited any reason for the suicide, he said.

Family members told media that Banwarilal had taken 8 beeghas of agricultural land as a tenant to cultivate crops. The famer was under stress because of low prices of his garlic produce, said his brother-in-law Chandromohan Malav.

“Banwarilal had invested around ₹1.50 lakh on garlic cultivation, but was not able to recover the farming cost because of low garlic prices, which drove him into depression and he committed suicide,” Chandromohan said.

Murlidhar Meena (32) of Kota district, Bardilal Rathore (66) and Sheikh Hanif (60) of Jhalawar district, and Sanjeev Meena of Baran district committed suicide last month. They allegedly ended life after getting low prices for their crops, particularly garlic, and being unable to pay off debts.

Hadauti region recorded a bumper garlic production this year -- 7.87 lakh metric ton against 3.94 lakh metric ton in 2015-16. Glut in garlic produce led to a price crash -- ₹10 to ₹30 per kilogram this year against ₹50 to ₹100 per kilogram last year.

The government buys garlic at ₹32 per kilogram under the market intervention scheme (MIS), but that is not enough to help farmers recover even the farming cost.