Vegetables, crops and nurseries worth millions damaged by hailstorms

By Lila Raj Khadka/ Prem Raj Simkhada,Birtamod/Kalikot, Apr. 2: The unseasonable rain and hailstorm that fell on Friday night has damaged vegetables, crops and nurseries worth millions of rupees in different parts of the country. Farmers of different parts of the country, including Birtamod and Damak of Jhapa and Kalikot have suffered huge losses due to damage of their crops by rain and snowfall that occurred on Friday.

According to Ram Thapa, leading farmer of Kankai Municipality-3, Surunga, said that hailstorm destroyed watermelons and cucumbers planted in two bighas of land. Thapa said that he lost around Rs. 2 million when the watermelons and cucumbers were destroyed.

According to him, he had to bear a huge loss because there was no vegetable insurance. Thapa said that he did not even insure vegetables due to the complicated process of insurance companies.

Similarly, the snowfall that occurred on Friday caused losses worth millions of rupees at Pavitra Agricultural Farm in Charali Chowk of Kankai Municipality-3, said Deepak Siwakoti, director of the farm.

According to Siwakoti, he suffered a loss of Rs. 5 million due to the destruction of bunches of flowers in his agricultural farm which were being prepared for sale.

Similarly, Ward Chairman of Kankai Municipality 3 Yubaraj Chaulagain said that when there was a heavy hailstorm in Ward No. 3 of Kankai Municipality area, farmers have lost millions of rupees.

He said that the hailstorm had not only damaged the crops of the farmers but also the cattle and the tin roofs of the houses and the details of the damage were being collected.

According to our Damak correspondent, the thunder and snowfall on Friday evening caused great damage to the maize planted in different municipalities of Jhapa district. According to Tulsi Puri of Damak-3, the maize crop planted by most of the farmers has been destroyed.

He said that the maize was destroyed and it could not be used.

Hailstorm makes life difficult for citizens In the meantime, it has been raining in Kalikot since Friday.

The life of the citizens is becoming difficult due to snowfall in the high Himalayan region, the upper part of the district.

Animal husbandry is the most affected by hailstorms.

The sheep kept in the upper area of Raskot Municipality have been affected by the hailstorm.

Ranga Bahadur Khadka, a shepherd of Raskot-2, said that there is a danger that the sheep will die of cold due to the heavy rain and accompanying hail.

“We had just cut the wool of the sheep. This is the season of cutting wool of the sheep. Hailstorms have affected sheep causing the cold,” he said.

As the summer season has started, sheep wool should be cut. At this time, it rained for a long time and even though the rain stopped, the sun did not shine which affected the sheep, he said.

There is no shed. It is no practice to keep the sheep in a shed.

He said that they had to suffer a lot due to the hailstorm and wind with rain as they had to be kept in the open.