Unseasonal rains create havoc, kill 14 people

Untimely rains accompanied by heavy gales lashed in 14 districts created destruction leaving 14 people dead and damaging crops in 56,089 hectors in the state.

The loss due to the rain devastation is yet to be estimated.  Kavuri Venkateswara Rao, a farmer from Bhimanapalli village, Uppalagupta mandal in East Godavari District died after heavy rains destroyed his crop in five acres.  Adilakshmi, a farm worker of Arepalli village in Cherukupalli mandal in Guntur district was killed after lightning struck when she was harvesting groundnut in the field. Koteswaramma, a farm labourer of Patha Kollimara in Kakumanu mandal in the same district also died due to lightning when she was grazing cattle. 

The unseasonal rains claimed lives of people, cattle and damaged the crops. About 11 people died on Monday due to lightning in Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts. Three farmers died of heart attack after seeing their destroyed crops. 

Lightning killed four in Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district, two in Guntur District and one in Krishna District. A farmer in East Godavari district died of heart attack after seeing his field inundated with rain water due to unexpected rains.

In Warangal and Khammam districts, the chillis got discoloured as the farmers dried it in open under the sun. They have incurred heavy losses due to damage to the chilli. In Adilabad, ginger crop was badly damaged and the maize crop, which was ready for harvesting was completely destroyed. Mango trees were uprooted by the heavy gales. 

In West Godavari, standing paddy crops and mango orchards were severely damaged. In East Godavari, banana plantations were completely flattened in 720 acres. Heaps of paddy stacks stored in the fields for drying were completely destroyed. Paddy crop and mango orchards were badly damaged Vizianagaram & Srikakulam districts. 

Crops such as sunflower, banana were destroyed due to heavy gales in YSR Kadapa district and mangoes fell down. Banana plantations in 249 hectors in Vemula, Vempalli and Veerapunayanipalli  mandals were completely wiped out. In Anantapur, paddy farmers suffered severe losses and mango gardens were destroyed, while paddy and sajja crops were submerged in rain water and banana plantations were totally flattened in Chittoor district.   

-Sakshipost