Mumbai: Two debt-ridden farmers from Parbhani and Ahmednagar district committed suicide by hanging from a tree, police said.
Shivaji Rodage (60), a resident of Ravalgaon village in Selu tehsil, ended his life by hanging from a tree with a rope on Tuesday, a senior police official said. The incident came to light when his family members went to the farm to search for Rodage, who was untraceable since Monday night, police said. Rodage had taken loans from bank and private money lenders, which he was unable to repay, police said.
The farmer’s suicide comes a few days after a 75-year-old farmer lighted his own ‘pyre’ and immolated himself in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra last week. Madhav Shankar Rawate, the farmer, set up a pyre of fodder under a tree on his farm, lighted it and jumped into it after climbing the tree, his son said. Rawate’s cotton crop on his four-acre farm was ruined by the pink boll-worm attack, and he could get only three quintals of the crop, the son claimed, adding that his father owed Rs. 60,000 to creditors.
Dhondiram Bhanudas Shirsath (42) farmer from Kusadgaon in Jamkhed teshil of Ahmednagar district committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree. He has having one and half acres of agriculture land. He had taken loan of Rs 1.5 lakh from State Bank and could not repay it.