Almost an hour of rainfall mixed with heavy hailstorm has damaged several acres of crops in a number of villages on the foothills of the Shivalik hills in Ambala on Wednesday.
This is the fourth time in the last 30 days that the weather disturbances have destroyed wheat, potato, sugarcane and other crops in the region.
During the earlier instances, the maximum damage was reported in Ambala-1 block (City), while this time the rain was reported in Naraingarh, Shahazadpur, Saha and Mullana areas, officials said.
Farmers said the hailstorm continued for 15 minutes in villages in the Raipur Rani belt and the maximum damage was reported in Bhurewala, Khanpur Rajputana, Laha and other villages along the Haryana-Himachal Pradesh border.
Yadvender, a farmer from Laha village along the NH-344, said he was on his fields when it started raining with a hailstorm.
“My family’s wheat, potato and sugarcane crops on over 20 acres have been damaged. Several farmers like us need urgent help,” he said.
Rajeev Sharma, a senior farmer activist in the area, said the soil dampness due to irregular rainfall in the fields had already affected the growth of the wheat crop in the past weeks and this direct hitting of the hail will break the stalk or permanently damage it.
{{/usCountry}}Rajeev Sharma, a senior farmer activist in the area, said the soil dampness due to irregular rainfall in the fields had already affected the growth of the wheat crop in the past weeks and this direct hitting of the hail will break the stalk or permanently damage it.
{{/usCountry}}Deputy director of agriculture Girish Nagpal said almost 2,500 applications on crop damage had been received in the last month, including 90% from the Ambala-1 block and fresh data will be available in a day or two.
Niraj, Naraingarh sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), said, “I’ll ask the officials of the departments concerned to conduct a girdawari to ascertain the damage.”
Meanwhile, Congress’ state president Kumari Selja alleged that the Haryana government was not conducting a special girdawari intentionally as demanded by the farmers. She was in the same region on Tuesday to meet farmers and party workers.