Thousands of small and marginal farmers, who have lost their crops due to untimely rain and hailstorm, are extremely happy to find a lifeline in the form of Omkareshwar canal. Dozens of villages on the canal bank celebrated the arrival of Mother Narmada at their doorsteps. The people of villages like Bari, Peepalgone, Gavalgaon, Mirzapur, Kanapur, Katora, etc performed puja and offered saffron chunari to Narmada. The water has now reached up to the tail end of the canal at block headquarters, Kasrawad.
Most of the farmers in this area are having small pieces of land ranging from 1-2 hectares. They are now preparing for sowing cotton, chilli, moong and vegetables. A total of 1 lakh hectare farms are likely to be irrigated in the summer through Omkareshwar Canal. As per a rough estimate, a yield of 4 lakh quintal chilli, 3 lakh quintal cotton, 1.60 lakh quintal moong and vegetables will be obtained.
It is to note here that no human settlement is affected by increase of water level of Omkareshwar reservoir upto 191 metre. This level was necessary to run the canal. An aerial survey and detailed photography of the periphery of reservoir at 191 metre level was carried out on April 15, 2015.
Comparing these photographs to the Google Earth images of March 2014 at 189 metre revealed that none of the human settlement is affected by increase of water level. A few people are sitting at a place in periphery of the reservoir in knee deep shallow water to oppose the discharge of water in canal. No village or human settlement is visible even at the farthest to their sitting spot.