Farmers bear brunt of unseasonal rains

Hyderabad: With heavy rain reported in different parts of Telangana during the wee hours of Wednesday resulted in widespread damage to paddy crops stored at procurement centres and uprooting of trees at several places. Here are the reports.

Heavy rains across Karimnagar district have damaged paddy crops stored at paddy procurement centres. Besides paddy, electricity poles and temporary sheds setup at PPCs were also damaged due to flash rain coupled with heavy wind that hit the district. Paddy crop stored at PPCs in Gollapalli mandal headquarters and Ramnur of Velgatur mandal of Jagtial district, Khilavanaparthy, Narsimhullapalli, Dharmaram mandal headquarters, Garrepalli of Sultanabad mandal of Peddapalli district was soaked due to rain. While some of the farmers managed to protect their produce by placing tarpaulins, some paddy was washed away in the rain water.

Electricity poles and temporary shed setup at PPC in Narsimhulapalli were also damaged due to heavy wind while roof of a newly constructed house owned by Ankama Rao was also damaged in Khilavanaparthy. The highest of 64.0 mm rainfall was recorded in Sarangapur of Jagtial district followed by Dharmapuri and Sirikonda 61.5, Velgatur 45.8 and Kolvai of Beerpur manda 40.8 mm. Gangadhara received 40.8 mm rainfall, Edullatattepalli of Manakondur got 31.0 and Thanugula of Jammikunt received 30.8 mm.

Heavy rains and gusty winds at various places in across Nalgonda district on Wednesday wee hours have hit the farmers as their paddy stocks at IKP centres got wet and horticultural crops particularly mosambi and lemon also damaged.

Second highest rain fall in the state was reported at Pajjur of Thipparthi mandal in the district with 98 mm rainfall. Followed by it, 93.8 mm rain fall was reported at Kamareddu Gudem and 88 mm rain fall at Nemmani in the district.

In Nalgonda district, Chinthapally, Pedda Adisherlapally, Thripuraram, Madgulapally, Thirumalagiri(Sagar), Gurrampode, Kattangur, Nidmanoor, Miryalaguda and Narketpally have witnessed rain coupled with gusty winds.

In Yadadri-Bhongir district, Rajapet, Bhongir, Yadagirigutta, Athmakur(M), Mothkur, Thurkapally, Bommalaramaram, Bibinagar, Pochampally, Choutuppal, Narayanpur, Ramannapet, Valigonda and Gundala mandals were also received rainfall. Highest rainfall of 79.6 mm was reported at Yadagirigutta.

Two buffaloes also died in Nalgonda district at Rajapet in Yadadri-Bhongir district and Pajjor in Nalgonda district due to lightning strike.

On the other hand, with heavy rains with thunderstorms and lightnings in the wee hours on Wednesday, a-65-year old farmer was killed as lightning struck him at Narlengadda village in Dubbaka mandal. He was identified as Soudu Pochaiah of Narlegandla.

Whereas, another farmer Reddaboina Kondaiah also sustained serious injuries in the incident. Since the area had started receiving rain at 3am, Pochaiah and Kondaiah came out of their homes to cover their harvested paddy with tarpaulins when the lighting struck them. Pochaiah died on spot.

The Dubbaka Police have registered a case. Meanwhile, the harvested paddy, and standing crops have damaged heavily due to untimely rains the district has witnessed during the last night.

Similarly, Heavy rains lashed several parts of Hyderabad during the wee hours of Wednesday. It is to mention here that the city from last few days have been witnessing occasional drizzles in different parts while the mercury levels remained high and above 40 degree Celsius. The IMD has been making forecast of rains for the last couple of days. However, the summer rains did arrive in Hyderabad lashing across the city with intensity in early hours. Thunder and lightning also accompanied the rains.

Till 6 am, Seethaphalmandi received the highest rainfall of 72.8 mm followed by Bansilalpet with 67 mm. West Marredpally (61.8 mm), Alwal (59.3 mm) and Balanagar ( 54.3 mm) also recorded high rainfall.

There were reports of some low-lying areas being inundated with rain water.