In 2002-2004, Karnataka's S.M. Krishna government blamed farmers' suicides on alcoholism and gambling. This time around, the authorities cannot ignore the bitter harvest and its aftermath. In Bidar district alone, 48 farmers have killed themselves since July 2006. All of them were sugarcane cultivators. .News of suicides is trickling in from Gulbarga, Gadag, Mandya and Chamarajanagar.