Trucks loaded with sugarcane at Palacode. File | Photo credit: N. Bashkaran
An agrarian landscape fed by rain, with agriculture as the mainstay; and yet no irrigation/water harvesting systems to sustain this agriculture on the one hand and no trace of nascent industry on the other left the Palacode constituency in limbo.
For the agrarian constituents of Palacode with marginal lands, two long-standing demands for irrigation schemes that would harvest runoff from the Thenpennai River at Krishnagiri and divert it to the Palacode water bodies would help to gain agriculture. The first of these – the Ennekolputhur project announced but still in the works envisages channeling the waters of the Thenpennai River to the Thumbalahalli Dam in Palacode; while the second project, if taken up, will take water from Thenpennai from Aliyalam check dam to Thoolsetti lake in Palacode. Palacode Sugar Cooperative Society, once a thriving mill for more than 25 years, was shut down due to decline in sugarcane production due to water shortage.
Published – 03 Apr 2026 20:31 IST
