Thousands of acres of harvest-ready-onions destroyed due to rains
Coimbatore: In Thondamuthur area, onions ready for harvest were submerged and destroyed. The Western Ghats have been receiving heavy rainfall over the last few days as the southwest monsoon intensifies. Due to this, the water supply in the catchment area of Siruvani increases and the water overflows into the river beds. Farmers have been cultivating various crops in the Thondamuthur area.
Thousands of acres of onions were submerged in water as they prepared to be harvested due to heavy rains yesterday. Similarly, bananas grown on many acres of land have been damaged due to strong winds. Thondamuthur Mundanthurai, Nallur field and Marakkadu areas have a lot of farmers cultivating onions.
In the wind that blew yesterday, a lot of banana trees were also uprooted. The bananas, which were grown on seven and a half acres of land belonging to Rasu, a farmer from Mundanthurai, were completely damaged. Breaking down emotionally while speaking, he said that "he had been farming on lease and had grown bananas by mortgaging two tractor tempos he had. 9000 bananas had been damaged which were ready to be harvested next month. The loss I estimate is up to ₹25 lakh."
Similarly, 900 banana trees grown in Dhanasekar's farm have been destroyed. Various farmers who used to cultivate arecanut and maize have also been affected
Last year, 600 acres of banana and lentils crops were damaged. Revenue officials are inspecting agricultural crops damaged due to the rains. Coimbatore District Collector K. Rajamani has stated that the relevant relief amount will be given after the study on the value of the damage.
At present 26 new houses are being built in the Kalkothi hill area where the tribals are staying. They will be temporarily shifted to houses in the nearby forest. Its roofs were blown off yesterday due to strong winds. Following this, they took refuge in other houses. Power outages have been reported in seven rain-hit villages due to the uprooting of trees in the Iruttu Pallam and Sadivayal areas on Siruvani Road.