Between December 1997 and May 1998 twenty-three
cases of suicides related to agricultural crop loss
were reported from the north Karnataka districts of
Bidar and Gulbarga. Of these, thirteen suicides were by
agriculturists in the district of Bidar, and a significant
proportion of these was from Bhalki taluka. Though this study was initiated in response to reports of suicides in the district, the study does not focus on the actual cases/households in which distress-related suicides were reported.1 Rather, the study considers the suicides to be symptomatic of larger and more pervasive crises in the region. The crises are ecological,economic, and social; each inter-linked with the other, and combining to produce distress in the region. And it is in the context of these crises that the pervasive distress in the region
and the suicides by agriculturists must be understood
