Chikkaballapura village adopts flood-hit Belagavi hamlet

BENGALURU: Segunase village in Belagavi and Bikkalhalli in Chikkaballapura are separated by more than 600km and several social and cultural factors. But in keeping with the adage, “One good turn deserves another”, flood-hit Segunase is being repaid with kindness for a farmer’s selfless donation many years ago.
Eleven years ago, a struggling farmer from Mugalkhod village in Belagavi donated a pair of bullocks to Bikkalhalli’s Yogamuneshwara temple. Soon after, footfall at the temple grew and Bikkalhalli, which has about 50 houses, attributed the progress to the arrival of the bullocks.“There are as many as 3,000 devotees on full-moon and no-moon days,” said a villager, adding that they have not forgotten the donation made by the Mugalkhod farmer. As floods wreaked havoc in North Karnataka earlier this month, especially in Belagavi, the villagers of Bikkalhalli reached out to Mugalkhod to find out what help they needed.

Mugalkhod wasn’t affected by the floods, but Bikkalhalli’s residents were keen to help. Segunase, some 60km from Mugalkhod, was severely affected by the floods. A majority of the village’s 200-odd houses was destroyed and acres of fields were under water. Bikkalhalli decided to “adopt” the village. “In 2008, a farmer in Mugalkhod approached me, saying he wanted to donate his cows as he was in no state to feed them and didn’t want to send them to a slaughter house,” said Manjunath BK, head of Yogamuneshwara Temple and a civil engineer.

“Despite his financial condition, he did not take money and gave away the cows to us as donation. Call it a miracle or just good fortune, the number of devotees to the temple has increased threefold since then. We started receiving huge donations as well. While the money has been invested for the development of the temple, we have decided to donate to the flood victims in Segunase,” said Manjunath.
Manjunath said they have also decided to give all the money the temple gets as offering. “We’ll continue to support them in every way we can until they are able to pick themselves up and return to normal,” he said.

Mallappa Shirol of Segunase told TOI, “We received new clothes, food materials, books for our children and cattle fodder. They promised school bags and uniforms for 140 students this week. The villagers are also staying here with us to ensure we get everything we need. They have collected the contact details of each and every family here and are in touch with us on a daily basis.”
Meanwhile, Venkatesh Mahadevapppa Kallappanavar, the Mugalkhod farmer who donated the bulls, is working as a construction labourer in Bengaluru. He migrated to the city as he was unable to continue farming due to recurrent drought in the region.

“The bullocks were six months old when I donated them and the villagers have taken care of them very well. I’m happy that Bikkalhalli has adopted the village in North Karnataka,” Kallappanavar said.