Hill villages cut off as rain pounds Sathyamangalam, Gobichettipalayam

Erode: Several hill villages in Kadambur area near Sathyamangalam in Erode district have been cut off as rains have been pounding this stretch for the past couple of days, while flash floods in Gobichettipalayam area have inundated standing paddy, sugarcane and banana crops causing loss to local farmers to the tune of ' one crore.

In the Kadambur and adjoining villages the situation is pathetic for the common people as the area already suffering from lack of ‘pucca’ roads for a stretch of 13-km, has been doubly incapacitated by the latest downpour with two overflowing jungle streams - Sarkaraipallam and Karumburpallam-, crippling people’s mobility to schools,hospitals or daily markets at nearby Sathyamangalam.

Their plight was best captured when one Ashokan of Kuttaiyur village suffered a snakebite. With the hill villages hardly accessible by roads, people could not summon the ‘108 Ambulance’ to the village.

However, in a bid to save his life, neighbours physically carried Ashokan in a makeshift cloth cradle (Thooli), crossed the jungle streams in spate and admitted him to a private hospital in Erode.

Locals are demanding proper, ‘pucca’ roads to the hill villages at least now.

In another incident near Bhavanisagar, a truck trapped in the Maayaar river due to the flash floods, was however, towed to safety by another lorry.