Farmers along the Gujarat coast should have been rejoicing at the prospect of a timely monsoon. Instead, they have suddenly become gloomy after unnaturally aggressive high tides have filled their fields and ponds with saline seawater. Many fear a drinking water crisis as their ponds, meant to store fresh rain water, are now brimming over with saline water. Farmers say they may not be able to cultivate anything for years together as their fields have become saline. Since the past four days, seawater has rushed into coastal villages of Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Surat and Kutch during high tides. If in Kandla seawater has rushed into low-lying hutments for four days in a row, in Jamnagar it has reached up to the famous Harshad Mata temple in Harshad village. Farmers here say they had only heard stories from their grandparents about the high tide bringing the sea into their homes, but had never seen it for themselves. The worst affected are villages in Dholera, Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar. "Five lakes meant to store rainwater have become saline after the high tide filled them with seawater," says Jadav Koli, of Mingalpur village, just two km from the sea in Dholera. "We fear not being able to cultivate anything for the next 10 years as our farms have turned saline." "Some 4,000 acres of land have turned infertile because of the high tide," says Dholka MLA Kanji Talpada. "Government should declare a special package for those affected." "Floods have ravaged our villages for the last three years and this time, it is high tide. We have lost our only source of income,'' says Rana Makwana of Jhankhi village near Dholera. Satyendra Bhandari, visiting professor at Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics said, "The recent high tide conditions in coastal Gujarat is a natural astronomical phenomenon. Lunar gravity and movement has a major effect on tidal conditions but the local climatic conditions also pay a major role in rising of water level." He says it is difficult to associate the high tides with global warming.