The farmers of Raigad, who had lost trees spread out over acres of land during Cyclone Nisarga, can finally heave a sigh of relief as the State government has agreed to pay them relief as per the damaged crop instead of per hectare.
The cyclone, which hit the district on June 3, had damaged 16.87 lakh coconut and supari trees spread across 1,576.49 hectares of land. The per hectare relief offered to farmers was opposed by villagers and local leaders, following which the government has approved per tree relief.
“While mangoes and cashews are grown on land extending to many hectares, supari and coconut are grown on smaller patches of land. The per hectare relief, which was ₹18,500 was increased to ₹50,000, which is valid for mango and cashew farmers. But when it comes to the farmers who lost coconut and supari trees, the relief would be less due to the size of their land. Hence, we had been insisting on per tree relief for coconut and supari trees,” Raigad Guardian Minister Aditi Tatkare said.
The initial approved amount was ₹11 per supari tree and ₹127 for a coconut tree, which was raised to ₹50 and ₹250 respectively. Apart from the per tree damage, coconut and supari farmers will also receive some amount from the per hectare relief, which will amount to ₹7.88 crore.
Around 15.11 lakh supari trees and 1.74 lakh coconut trees have been damaged in the cyclone, for which farmers will be compensated ₹7.55 crore and ₹4.37 crore respectively, bringing the total to ₹11.93 crore.
Alibaug, which saw the most damage to 6.53 lakh supari and 38,504 coconut trees over 744 hectares, will receive relief of ₹4,22 crore. Shrivardhan, where 5.92 lakh supari and 81,730 coconut trees over 343.42 hectares were destroyed will receive ₹5 crore.
Murud, with 2.23 lakh supari and 20,399 coconut trees across 251 hectares, will receive ₹1.62 crore. Mangaon, where 594 supari and 17,219 coconut trees on 104 hectares of land were damaged, will receive ₹43 lakh.