Many parts of Central India, including Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha have observed heavy showers and hailstorm in the last 2 to 3 days that have injured several people and damaged crops worth crores of rupees.
Nagpur - Routine life was thrown completely out of gear as strong winds of up to 50 kmph wreaked havoc in Nagpur. A heavy spell of hailstorm blew down trees and injured over 6 people in various incidents across the city. Many houses were piled up with hail stones and the roof of a house collapsed in Zaripatka, killing one person.
Moreover, this spell of severe hailstorm (with lemon sized hail) damaged crops worth hundreds of crores in Katol, Narkhed, Kalmeshwar and Mohpa. About 60% of the Mrig orange crop which was ready to be harvested has been damaged along with standing crop of wheat and chana. The Maharashtra government is expected to pay about Rs 30,000 per hectare to farmers to cover up the huge loss incurred due to the weather changes.
Gwalior and Bhopal- With the heaviest rain ever recorded in Bhopal in the month of February (40 mm on 26th February 2014) and in Gwalior (69.9 mm on 27th February, 2014), the latest incident of hailstorm has added to the misery of the people in the state. Over 15- 40 percent damage to Standing Rabi crops of gram and wheat has been reported from all across Madhya Pradesh. A survey shows around 1871 villages across 22 districts in the state have been severely affected, causing huge losses to farmers.
The districts that have been affected the most are Gwalior, Bhopal, Ujjain, Chambal, Hoshangabad, Neemuch, Dewas, Seoni, Raisen, Dhar, Umaria, Burhanpur, Morena, Katni, Narsinghpur, Satna, Sagar, Shivpuri, Chhatarpur, Sehore, and Agar Malwa.
Warning of hailstorm in cities of Guna, Satna, Gwalior, Sagar and Khajuraho has been issued by the state’s meteorological department.
“Built up of thunder clouds and strong winds gusting at a speed of up to 60 kmph shows possibilities of hailstorm in parts of Rajasthan such as Jaipur, Bharatpur and Dosa”, said Samar Chaudhury, meteorologist at Skymet Weather.
