Four-member central team visits Vellore district to assess damage inflicted by Cyclone Nivar

VELLORE: A central team comprising officers from water resources, rural development and road transport and highways departments visited Vellore district on Monday to assess the damage inflicted by Cyclone Nivar.

Led by Tamil Nadu highways department secretary K Manivasan, the team members landed in Vellore on Sunday night. They were briefed on the havoc wreaked by the cyclone by district collector A Shanmuga Sundaram through a Powerpoint presentation.

The four-member team consists of J Harsha, director, monitoring directorate, Central Water Commission (CWC), of Water Resources department, Rananjay Singh, regional officer, ministry of road transport and highways, Amit Kumar, deputy director (PF-S), department of expenditure, and Dharmvir Jha, director (RE), rural development department.

They inspected the damage caused to papaya crops in three acres of land belonging to Kamalesh, a farmer, at Kandipedu.

Despite strong drizzles, the central team continued the assessment at Ilayanallur where they evaluated the damage to paddy crops.

They also visited the Ponnai anaicut where the shutters were not maintained properly, before arriving at Mathandakuppam where a breach of a lake owned by a private party caused heavy damage to crops in surrounding places.

“The central team visited papaya and paddy fields at Kandipedu and Ilayanallur to have a first-hand assessment of the damage caused by Cyclone Nivar. The team members also inspected the Ponnai anaicut and Mathandakuppam lake,” an officer said.

Winding up the inspection in Vellore district, the team members will visit cyclone-affected areas in neighbouring Ranipet district, the officer added.

Vellore district collector A Shanmuga Sundaram and Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly and DMK general secretary Durai Murugan also accompanied the team.

In Ranipet, they are expected to visit Ekambaranallur, Nanthialam, Melakuppam, Sathur, K Veloor and Sakkaramallur.

Vellore, Ranipet and Tiruvannamalai districts bore the brunt of the post-landfall fury of Cyclone Nivar on 25 and 26 November. Heavy downpours coupled with gusty winds damaged crops, houses and huts, uprooted trees and electric poles and caused flooding of major rivers and streams.

Various crops, including paddy, sugarcane, plantain, groundnut and papaya, were damaged in an estimated area of 918 hectares in Vellore district.

In neighbouring Ranipet district, paddy, groundnut, plantain and other crops were damaged in 2293 hectares.

Tiruvannamalai suffered loss of paddy over an initially estimated area of 2,210 hectares, groundnut in 719 hectares and black gram in 319 hectares.