People of Hyderabad woke up on Wednesday morning to get shock as heavy rains lashed starting from 5 AM for four hours. Hyderabad recorded its highest rainfall since 16 years and brought life to stand still. GHMC sent warning asking people not to venture out unless there was an emergency and asked people living in old buildings to vacate immediately.
Amberpet and Nallakunta recorded 12 cm of rainfall followed by Malkajgiri and Malkapur at 9 cm. The average rainfall received in the city on Wednesday was 7 cm. Some people lost their lives and as the down pour coupled with strong winds and lightning, continued for four hours, bringing down trees and hoardings.
Entire city got submerged with roads, underpasses and bridges got flooded by 9 AM. Commuters had difficult time as heavy rains resulted in traffic jams across the city. Even under all this distress and with Met department warning heavy rainfall for the next two days, farmers feel the rains came as blessing in disguise.
Due to dry spell in Telangana, major crops especially maize witnessed withering. Now these rains saved the crops. Many other crops like green gram, red gram, jowar, paddy, cotton and soyabean crops in Khammam, Medak, Mahbubnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and other places suffered from withering.
Ms Jhansi, deputy director, Telangana agriculture department speaking to scribes said “Crops that were withering have recouped due to rains across the state, as per reports from all districts,’’ another official said “Farmers are taking up land preparation and sowing operations as the monsoon is active,”
Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy held high level meeting and reviewed the situation. Senior officials were asked to send joint teams from the department and research centres for field visits and to advise farmers over the status of crops, crop management and soil moisture conservation practices to avoid crop loss.
