An unseasonal rain accompanied by hailstorm occurred in several parts of Telangana on Thursday night and Friday, damaging standing crop and paddy stocked at procurement centres.
A heavy rain also lashed Hyderabad for different spells after 1 a.m. and disrupted power supply in various parts.
Perhaps the worst affected was the erstwhile Khammam district where heavy gales ravaged several mango orchards and resulted in extensive fruit dropping besides drenching a large quantity of paddy stocked at a few paddy procurement centres.
Several mango growers in Raghunadhapalem and Khammam rural mandals bore the brunt of nature’s fury. The branches of mango trees were uprooted in the process.
According to sources, hundreds of bags of paddy kept in the open ground by farmers at the procurement centre on the premises of the agriculture market in Nelakondapalli got soaked. The maize crops were flattened as well as papaya plants in several villages in Kusumanchi, Raghunadhapalem, Khammam rural mandals.
Procurement delays
Some of the aggrieved paddy growers attributed the damage to their paddy produce to the alleged slow pace of paddy procurement and lack of availability of adequate gunny bags and tarpaulins to cover their paddy produce. Official sources, however, rebutted the charges.
Meanwhile, a team of Horticulture department officials on Friday visited Ramannapeta, Chimmapudi and a few other villages affected by Thursday night’s unseasonal rain to assess the extent of damage caused to the mango and papaya orchards.
The hailstorm damaged crop in almost all mandals and villages of the Jagtial district which is well known for mango groves on Friday. The damage was equally bad in Sircilla and Karimnagar districts.
Tarpaulin sheets
The sudden rain and hailstorm hit the farmers hard in Jagtial, Raikal, Bheerpur, Sarangapur, Mallial, Korutla and other mandals causing extensive damage to the standing paddy crop and the mango groves. The harvested paddy which was bought to the Indira Kranthi Patham procurement centres and marketyards was also damaged in majority of villages due to non-availability of adequate tarpaulin sheets. The uprooted trees caused traffic obstruction on the national highway at Mohanraopet in Korutla mandal.
Heavy crop loss was reported from several parts of Siddipet district. Hailstorm with heavy gales was reported at Akkannapet, Koheda and Bejjanki late Thursday night and Friday.
Crops like paddy, mango and vegetables suffered huge damage in the district.
In erstwhile Adilabad, a few mandals of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district were hit by unseasonal rainfall on Friday evening causing damage to standing maize crop. Bejjur mandal witnessed a spell of hailstorm.
There was power outage since 4 p.m. as gusts of wind lashed the area. Power supply was not restored until reports last came in.
Rainfall occurred in Kagaznagar, Koutala, Chintalamanepalli, Dahegaon and Penchikalpet. Two electric poles and a tree were uprooted In Kagaznagar town.