AP coastal damage high

Vijayawada: Rain, and floods that followed, have left a trail of destruction in central coastal districts, damaging crops in thousands of hectares, damaging roads, culverts, bridges and houses. Unofficial sources estimate the loss at Rs 700 crore. The officials, however, put the loss at Rs 318 crore.

As the weather conditions have improved, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu made an aerial survey of East and West Godavari districts on Wednesday afternoon. He promised Rs 25,000 for each hectare of paddy crop damaged by the rain.

Rain affected normal life and caused extensive damage mostly in Guntur, Krishna East and West Godavari districts. Paddy crop has been damaged in the transplantation stage in over 50,000 hectares in the affected districts.

The R&B, Irrigation, Panchayat Raj and other departments suffered due to damage to roads, bridges and culverts. Paddy, cotton, maize and other crops inundated in the heavy rain. After aerial survey in the two Godavari districts on Wednesday, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu held review meeting with the officials.

Godavari delta, known as rice bowl of Andhra Pradesh, has been badly affected in 50 mandals. Drains, rivulets and streams in West Godavari district are in spate, particularly Yerrakalva, Tammileru, Byneru and Jalleru. Consequently, breaches developed leading to inundation of paddy crop in the nursery stage and transplantation stage.

According to preliminary estimates, paddy crop in the transplantation stage was submerged in 16,227 hectares in West Godavari district. Nidadavolu, Tadepalligudem, Achanta, Elur, Buttayagudem, Narasapuram, Bhimavaram, Koyyalagudem, Nallajarla and other mandas were hit by the floods and heavy rain.

The heavy rain once again proved many villages are vulnerable to floods and loss. Luckily, there was no human loss in the floods. District Collector Katamaneni Bhaskar and Superintendent of Police Ravi Prakash kept vigil and monitored the situation to prevent any untoward incident. In West Godavari district, 11,964 persons evacuated to the safer places and 32 relief camps were set up by district administration.

A total of 180 houses were fully damaged and 143 partially damaged. Crops were over 7,000 hectares submerged in rainwater in West Godavari district, said Minister for Civil Supplies Prathipati Pulla Rao. Yerrakalva proved very dangerous to scores of villages. A 100-year-old bridge on Byneru was washed away in the flood water.

East Godavari district suffered huge loss due to heavy rain and floods. According to preliminary estimations, the crop was damaged in 6,400 hectares in the district. Paddy crop damaged in Yetapaka, Amalapuram, Ramachandrapuram divisions. House damages loss is estimated at Rs 8.73 crore.

A total of 165 houses in Yetapaka and 45 houses in Ramachodavaram are either fully or partially damaged. A total of 32 relief camps were set up in East Godavari where 3,250 people were evacuated during the last few days.

According to Joint Director of Agriculture KSV Prasad, East Godavari, the final assessment of losses to agriculture sector will be made after receding of flood waters and inundation from agriculture fields. Road transportation was affected in 237 villages in two Godavari districts due to floods and breaches.

In Krishna district, the crop loss is estimated at Rs 60 crore as Western Krishna was hit by heavy rain and inflows from uplands in Khammam and Nalgonda districts in Telangana state.

Crops were inundated in 31,000 hectares in the mandals of Nandigama, Mylavaram, Tiruvuru, Jaggaiahpet, Veerulapadu, Ibrahimpatnam, Nuzvid and Tiruvur. Panchayat and R&B roads were damaged in many areas disrupting the road transportation. The district returned to normal as there is no rain on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In Guntur district, crop loss and infrastructure damage were less compared to two Godavari districts. Joint director of Agriculture M Vijaya Bharati said there was no crop loss due to recent rain. Cotton fields inundated in Tullur, Amaravati and Krosuru mandals in 1,500 hectares. Rainwater started receding. Horticulture crops were inundated in 1,000 acres in Tadepalli mandal of Guntur district.

Meanwhile, officials put the crop loss at Rs 318 crore. The agriculture department officials say that the damage would be more once the enumeration is completed. They estimate that the input subsidy alone would be Rs 111 crore. Paddy in an area of 50,000 hectares had been damaged and cotton in 13,782 hectares affected.