Central team inspects crop damage in Chandragiri mandal

Tirupati: The Inter-Ministerial Central team which is on a two-day official visit to inspect flood-affected areas in Chittoor and Kadapa districts to assess the damage caused by flash floods in the two districts, on Friday inspected the damaged crops, villages tanks and roads in Bhimavaram valley in Chandragiri mandal.

The farmers in Bhimavaram told the Central team that the crops of 32 farmers against 182 in the village were totally lost in the flash floods while the remaining also sustained damage and lamented that the devastation stuck when the crop was ready for harvest.

In the interaction the team had with farmers, they said that they normally get a yield of 25 to 30 bags of paddy per acre. The team walking a three-km distance in the villages inspected the fields to see the crop damage caused by the flash flood in Bhimavaram valley where Bhima river flows before it joins Swarnamukhi near Chandragiri. Flash floods occurred in the area following the heavy downpour in Chittoor district last week.

At various places, the farmers brought the damaged paddy and groundnut from their fields to show to the members of the Central team to reveal crop damage in the villages in the Bhima valley. District Collector M Harinarayanan said the same was the case with areas like Punganur where several rivers flow. It has witnessed heavy damages to standing crops and informed the team that enumeration was going on briskly to assess the total crop loss in the district. The heavy rainfall experienced in many parts of the district was the main reason for the flash floods and the devastation in the district. In Kuchivaripalli, the team after verifying the damages to the crops also inspected the horticulture crops including mango and a farmer said that 10 farmers in the village lost 25 acres of their mango garden and observed that three overflowing tanks near the village aggravated the floods causing more damage to the crops in the village.

The team also inspected the floodwater still flowing down in full force from Malapalli. The farmers told the team that if all the streams and canals are not revived and rejuvenated, the floods during heavy rains in future will cause more devastation. The Central team includes Kunal Satyarthi , Advisor, NDMA , Ministry of Home Affairs, Abhey Kumar, Director, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Dr K Manoharan, Director, Department of Agriculture Co- operation & Farmers welfare, Srinivasu Bairy, Superintendent Engineer, Ministry of Water Resources, Shivani Sharma, Director, Ministry of Power, Shravan Kumar Singh, Superintendent Engineer-cum-Regional Officer, Ministry of Roads, Highways and Anil Kumar Singh, Ministry of Rural Development. Principal Secretary (Agriculture), Arunkumar and district officials from various departments accompanied the team. After the visit of flood-affected areas, the team discussed with the officials on the damages caused by the flash floods in various places in Chittoor district which was displayed in a photo exhibition at a private hotel where the team was staying.