Mahbubanagar: Heavy rains, lightning wreak havoc across Palamuru

Mahbubanagar: Heavy rains accompanied by hail storm and thunder bolts wreaked havoc and killed many animals and destroyed standing paddy and maize crops over hundreds of acres during the past 24 hours in the district.

In all the 5 districts of erstwhile Mahbubanagar, heavy rains caused damage to not only the crops but also to the livestock, where in lightning killed buffalos, bulls and other cattle causing huge loss to the farmers.

As it is already a paddy harvesting season and many farmers are in the process of harvesting their paddy and drying them up on the platforms. Their harvested paddy was drenched in many places and even the paddy heaps brought to market yards in Devarkadra, Gadwal, Jadcherla, Mahabubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Wanaparthy and other agriculture markets got drenched due to sudden heavy downpour during the early hours on Wednesday.

It is estimated that hundreds of acres of standing paddy crop which is about to be harvested in a day or two got due to hail storm in Mahbubanagar, Gadwal and Narayanpet districts.

In Nagarkurnool and Gadwal districts, the chilli and paddy crops also fell on the ground causing huge losses to the farmers. A farmer named Ramaiah from Itol village of Tadoor mandal lost his chili crop in over 3 acres causing huge loss of Rs. 4.5 lakh.

Similarly, a farmer Srikanth Reddy from Manopadu village also lost his chili crop which he was drying on a platform due to sudden down pour in the midnight.

"We have lost all our hard work due to these unseasonal rains. The chilli crop which we hope would give us good returns has been completely destroyed due to the rains. The drenched chilli will change colour and it will not have good demand in the market, " says Srikanth Reddy.

"We had spent Rs 2 lakh per acre on chilli cultivation, but due to sudden rains we have lost this crop. We are requesting the government to consider our losses and pay us compensation. We are also demanding the government to provide us proper sheds and gowdowns to store our chilli crop securely," he said.

Not just crop damange, the sudden thunder storm which brought with it lighting and thunderbolts had also caused loss to livestock. Two bulls belonging to Tahair from Yellmmapally village of Ambrabad mandal in Nagarkurnool district and the other bull of Mootila Lalappa from Kyatanpally village of Damagidda mandal of Narayanpet were killed due to thunder bolt. Two buffalos of Satyanarayana Reddy of Alwanpally village of Jadcherla mandal were also killed due to thunder bolt.

Paddy crop and mango crops were severely damaged in Wanaparthy and Kollapur mandals. The affected farmers are demanding the government to pay them compensation so that they could recover at least some part of their loss caused by the unseasonal rains.