--- Srini Ramakrishnan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 4/28/07, Venkat Mangudi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote:
> but what we have in India is a spiraling > inflation of urban land > prices while rural land continues to lie untouched > by the Indian > economic miracle unless it has some potential of > touching the margins > of our ever expanding urban zones. This is completely untrue. In and around Bandipur where I work, which is 80 kms from anywhere, land situated 2 kms from the highway, accessible only through a dirt track, sells for 5-600,000 Rs. an acre. Merely two years ago, it was 75,000 if there was water below. What such a dramatic escalation, driven almost entirely by urban buyers, has done to the local dryland agricultural economy is utterly tragic. Farmers sell to plug decades-long, high-interest loans, and then find themselves without a patch even to grow food for subsistence. Migration and the rest of that downward spiral inevitably follows. If the sale didn't cover both the loan and the daughter's wedding, suicide is the preferred solution. I also know that this isn't true of Karnataka alone...it is the case all over Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and anywhere south of the Vindhyas. Pavithra __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
