Unseasonal rain accompanied by hailstorm in central parts of Maharashtra has claimed four more lives in day and more than 50% crops on 6.72 lakh hectares of agricultural land across the state has been damaged.

State agriculture commissioner Umakant Dangat said that over 6.72 lakh hectares of agricultural land across 28 districts in the state has been affected due to unseasonal rainfall and hailstorms. "Over 50, 000 hectares of fruit crops and food crops on 6.20 lakh hectares has been destroyed," he said.

Beed district seems to be worst affected in the region and losses have been reported from the entire Marathwada region. Buldhana district is the worst affected in Vidarbha as many parts of the state have come seen rainfall. Parts of Jalgaon, Dhule, Solapur, Satara, Sangli and Ahmednagar districts have also suffered agricultural losses.

The process of conducting panchnama to assess the exact damage is still underway and the agriculture loss could go up. "A team from the Centre is likely to visit the affected regions this week. We will receive the detailed programmed on March 10," Dangat said.

In Aurangabad district, Sillod taluka seems to be the worst affected due to heavy hailstorm and rain in Ambejogai and Ajanta belt for an hour on Saturday afternoon.

The primary information indicates that around 27 villages in the taluka have suffered losses. Agriculture land of over 2, 000 hectares has been damaged more than 50%, while the damage in 1, 000 hectares is less than 50%.

Agriculture department official said that Rabi sowing was done on more than 1.64 hectares (Ha) of land in Hingoli district. Preliminary estimate by the revenue department recorded till March 3 indicates loss of crops over 6,731 hectares of land. Parts of the district witnessed repeated unseasonal rainfall and winds from February 23 to March 9 and experienced hailstorms for five times during this period.

Farmers have expressed their resentment over the agriculture department survey, which shows that crops on over 3,338 hectares of land has been damaged more than 50%.

"Hingoli district is known for cultivation of wheat and gram crop in abundance. Since it is a rain-fed area, the atmosphere is conducive for these crops. I was expecting around 20 quintals of gram but the unseasonal rainfall has damaged more than 50% of the crop," said farmer Santosh Nagulkar.

Another farmer Suresh Bedse Patil said that the orchard owners too feel the assessment is very short of actual losses. "Only 207 hectares of land has been considered in survey reports, whereas actual horticulture crop losses account far more," another farmer Suresh Bedse Patil.

"Rivers and nullahs are overflowing at many places in Hingoli, including KendraBudruk, Risod, Sauna and Manaspimpri. The MSEB too incurred loss to the tune of Rs 20 lakh, in which 423 poles were uprooted and six transformers were burnt," said sub-divisional officer, agriculture department, B S Kachuve.

Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/