Erode: Heavy rains accompanied by strong winds late on Sunday devastated over 10,000 banana plants and uprooted hundreds of coconut trees in Nagadevanpalayam panchayat area near Gobichettipalayam near here, even as downpour badly damaged over ten tiled-roof houses in the area.
Farmers of several villages in that area are virtually in tears as the heavy precipitation and the winds wrecked havoc bringing down over 10,000 banana plants that were to be harvested in a month or so, besides uprooting over 100 coconut trees. This dashed the hopes of farmers in those villages who could not raise even a single crop last year due to the non-availability of adequate water.
To compensate for last year’s loss, farmers in this belt have raised two cash crops this year, turmeric and banana. But they never expected the banana plants to be mowed down by the winds in this fashion, one of the farmers in the area told DC.
The affected hamlets in that panchayat include Vellingattupudur, Mullangarai, Ayyampudur and Selvapuram colony, farmers said. Affected farmers should be given due compensation for the crop loss, they urged the State government.
The houses devastated by the rains largely belong to Dalits in the area and they appealed to the government for cash relief to set right their dwellings.
Power supply to many parts of Nagadevanpalayam panchayat was cut off last night as scores of electric poles were either twisted or came down in the strong winds.
