Farmers of Palakkad District in Kerala on Saturday staged a demonstration by wearing garlands of human skulls in protest against the District Administration’s order on drinking water management.

The District Administration of Palakkad had announced in January that drinking water from Malampuzha Drinking Water Supply Scheme would be directed to drought hit villages only for drinking purposes. Anything other than drinking including irrigation and farming would not be entertained since the Government was keen on storing the water as the monsoons had failed, the order said.

Kerala Water Authority had warned the State that since the water storage was poor in the reservoirs, another monsoon failure would prove costly and the situation might get out of control.

However, in late January water was reportedly diverted by some farmers for irrigation purpose and the Kodumb-Popully Integrated Water Supply Scheme broke down.

The State made some makeshift arrangements and gave protection to water storage centres, which made the farmers feel unhappy as they were left with no water for farming.

Protesting against this, farmers blamed the State Government for its poor water management. Claiming that they suffered a big loss, they appealed to the Government to withdraw the scheme immediately and to waive their loans.