Farmer Suicides and Protest Deaths in Vidarbha: A Decade of Administrative Failure

thenewsdirt
May 26
6 min read

The Vidarbha region has carried a persistent burden over the past decade, one shaped not by natural calamities alone but by repeated administrative lapses. Here, farmland stretches dry after irregular rainfall, and protests end in tragedy more often than change.

Between 2015 and 2025, hundreds of recorded farmer suicides, self-immolation threats, and protest deaths have reflected not just agrarian distress but also a breakdown in how the system responds to its most vulnerable.

Some names are remembered for the movements they inspired, others are known only by the talukas they once tilled. In each case, the underlying causes remain unaddressed.

A Farmer Dies in Protest, Another on His Field

In March 2025, a farmer in Buldhana district died after consuming poison in his own field.

Kailash Arjun Nagre, aged 43, was no ordinary cultivator. He had received a state award in 2020 and led several protests demanding canal water for 14 villages dependent on the Khadakpurna reservoir.

Before his death, Nagre left a note asking that his body not be removed until officials promised to act. His suicide, on the festival of Holi, did not go unnoticed.

Within hours, thousands blocked roads, halted government movement, and refused to cooperate until top officials reached Shivni Armal. It was only after political representatives arrived that the body was allowed to be taken for a postmortem.

A year earlier, a protest in Morshi taluka of Amravati took a fatal turn. In January 2024, a farmer participating in a sit-in against dam displacement hanged himself at the protest site. The demonstrators were demanding land and job compensation for families displaced by the Upper Wardha dam project.

The suicide turned the protest volatile. Roads were blocked and tempers flared. Authorities took stock of the situation but offered no immediate changes in policy. The protest was eventually dispersed, but the demand for fair rehabilitation remained unfulfilled.

In November 2019, Tulsiram Shinde, a soybean farmer from Akola’s Pimpaloli village, was found hanging in a nearby forest.

His crop had failed after unseasonal rain. His body was discovered only after several days. According to his family, the crop loss left him without hope.

While the administration did issue rainfall compensation to affected farmers later, the delay and the limited assistance offered no comfort to Shinde’s family, who continued to express their discontent with the compensation process and the lack of proactive support.

Self-Immolation Threats and Unheeded Warnings

In 2016, farmers from Wardha came close to resorting to fire in protest. Outside the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, over 400 cotton farmers from Seloo taluka threatened to self-immolate if they were not paid ₹8 crore owed to them by a private mill owner.

The cotton had been purchased in 2014, but payments were never made. Despite several complaints and a police case filed the previous year, the farmers had seen no progress. The situation was defused only after last-minute assurances, but the threat itself showed the level of desperation.

The link between business interests and delayed justice was apparent to those present, and the protestors left with only partial satisfaction. No immediate resolution followed.

Back in January 2015, Yavatmal witnessed a week of consecutive farmer suicides. Eight farmers took their own lives over four days.

Among them were Bansi Rathode of Bodadi, Devrao Bhagwat of Sonegaon, Prakash Kutarmare of Mohada, and Tulsiram Rathode of Devnala. The cause was clear, mounting debt and crashing prices of cotton and pulses. Activists from the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti reported the cases and pointed to the urgent need for intervention.

Yet, these incidents passed with no formal recognition of a crisis and minimal immediate relief from the authorities.

Administrative Shortfalls and Patterns of Inaction

Across these events, a pattern emerges: delayed response, limited compensation, and procedural exclusions.

Between 2001 and early 2025, Vidarbha’s Amravati division reported over 21,000 farmer suicides.

In that period, more than half the applications for government compensation were rejected on technical grounds. The process to determine eligibility often ignored the deeper reasons behind suicides, dismissing them as personal or unrelated to agriculture.

This not only excluded affected families from relief but also distorted the administrative understanding of the crisis.

Recent figures continue to reveal the same story. In January 2025 alone, 10 suicides were recorded in Amravati, 34 in Yavatmal, 10 in Buldhana, and 7 in Washim.

These deaths occurred even as state relief announcements were made. Compensation rates remained limited, about ₹8,000 per hectare in some areas, and disbursals were delayed.

The official procedures were often slow, especially when reliant on survey verification and loan record audits.

In response to protests over deaths or suicides with public outcry, authorities often made symbolic visits and issued statements of condolence.

In cases like Kailash Nagre’s, the response included temporary attention from state leaders.

But no systemic changes were made. Demands for irrigation expansion and water rights were absorbed into bureaucratic cycles. Nagre’s suicide note specifically demanded canal water, a demand that remained unresolved despite state awareness and decades of planning.

Meanwhile, credit continues to flow largely through private moneylenders. Farmers, unable to access formal loans or stuck with overdue repayments, remain exposed to harsh terms.

Crop insurance often fails to provide relief due to strict claim procedures.

Those with marginal landholdings face the greatest barriers, receiving neither credit support nor eligibility under most relief schemes.

Irrigation, Markets, and the Cost of Delay

Vidarbha’s dependence on erratic rainfall deepens its vulnerability. Only 10 to 12 percent of the region’s farmland is irrigated. Without secure water access, even minor climate shocks lead to crop failure.

In years like 2019 and 2022, where unseasonal rainfall or droughts affected the region, farmers had to rely on promises of aid that arrived late or not at all.

These recurring weather impacts, combined with the region’s heavy dependence on cotton and soybeans, trap farmers in a cycle of loss.

Pricing is another chronic issue. Government procurement fails to match input costs, particularly for non-MSP crops. Farmers in Yavatmal and Wardha frequently face payment delays, deductions, or outright rejections from procurement centres.

In some cases, even after selling their produce, farmers have to wait weeks for payment. The lack of timely revenue further pushes them towards debt.

Administrative audits show the scale of the problem, but policy changes remain limited. While relief funds are occasionally announced, they are often dependent on survey reports, leading to uneven implementation. Farmers who lose crops to disease or moisture often fail to get recognition in government surveys. Without local intervention, such cases continue to fall through procedural gaps.

Over ten years, Vidarbha’s farmers have made repeated attempts to be heard through protests, petitions, and, at times, their deaths.

Yet, the core issues remain unresolved. Irrigation gaps, market instability, credit hurdles, and delayed relief define the backdrop to each reported case.

The suicides and protest deaths documented across districts like Akola, Yavatmal, Amravati, and Buldhana are not isolated incidents.

They form a pattern that reflects administrative stagnation. Farmers continue to demand what has already been promised, timely payment, water access, and fair compensation. As long as those promises remain unmet, the region’s fields will bear more than just the weight of failed crops.