Chandrapratap Tiwari

हिंदी में पढ़ें: Narayan Singh, a farmer from Bhairupura village in the Huzur tehsil of the Bhopal district, has a message, demanding that his crop loan be repaid by March 28. His wheat crop still stands green in the fields. Harvesting has not begun, and payment from sales will take time. Repaying the loan within the stipulated deadline is simply not practical for him. And others who took crop loans from cooperative societies in the Bhopal and Sehore districts face the same anxiety and dichotomy.

Every morning at 8 AM, a group of people climb the hills of Jhiri village in Raisen district. They carry no government orders and receive no pay. By noon, they come back down, leaving behind small stone dams on the hillside. They came from Bhopal, Vidisha, and Indore, entirely at their own expense. This is where the Betwa River begins its journey. Starting at about 470 meters above sea level in the Vindhya region, the Betwa flows roughly 590 kilometers before merging with the Yamuna near Hamirpur.