India: Unseasonal rain, hail stones causes damage

Barely a month has passed since unseasonal rain, strong wind and hail stones rained down on parts of Niphad, Kalwan, Dindori. While farmers are still reeling from that episode, Tuesday’s bout has affected crops like grape, onion, wheat, tomato, pomegranate and maize.While the skies became cloudy by noon, rain and hail stones lashed down by late evening, spreading a sheet of white over roads and farms. Crops were covered with ice flakes and standing crop was flattened. Grapes in their harvesting stage dropped berries and tomato plants were unable to hold themselves.According to the weather department, the low pressure belt created over the Bay of Bengal, influencing central Maharashtra and the cold wave about 3 kms in the atmosphere are the reasons for the unseasonal rains and hail storm.Seven tehsils of Nashik district received 188 mm of rain, affecting the large areas of the farms, district officials stated. The rain and hailstorm wreaked havoc for a minimum of 20 minutes, and extended till about 2 hours in different areas. As per preliminary reports, over 5,550 hectres of land were damaged in parts of Kalwan, Niphad and Sinnar alone.Yogesh Gavande, an onion farmer from Shirsmani, Kalwan said: "In the span of 30 minutes, the weather condition changed. It rained for about two hours and hail burst was about three times. The hail stones were quite big in size, and each time, they lasted for about 10 minutes. My crop has been damaged and the wheat one has flattened. I do not know what will happen next, but the crop is all lost."