‘The whole village looked war-ravaged’

Damaged crops now lie across the fields, the smell of dead animals and fish in the village tank fills the air, while trees lie bare, electricity poles bent and irrigation pipes broken — all a testimony to the devastating impact of that afternoon’s storm.

Pahur, located around 300 km from Nagpur, has 260 houses and 1,200 people. It was just one of the 57 villages of the 91 in the tehsil to be hit by what locals unanimously describe as a never-before “gaarpeet (gaar means hail, peet means assault)”.

Around 600 houses and crops worth Rs 25 crore, spread over 9,000 of the 22,000 hectares, were destroyed.

“The loss is 100 per cent,” says a villager, seeking, apart from relief, waiving off of outstanding farm loans.

“We had no place to hide as hailstones as big as guavas started hitting us after winds blew tin roofs away. Tins which withstood the winds turned into sieves from which water poured in, filling our houses with knee-deep water. When the storm stopped after one hour, the whole village looked war-ravaged,” says sarpanch Gulabrao Poghe.

A day later, Poghe says, 60-year-old Rangnath Munde died of a heart attack on seeing his entire crop damaged.

Nandabai Nagre lost her husband Shivaji two months ago due to heart attack. Their 16-year-old son helped till their two-acre land, and they were looking forward to a good harvest to tide over bad times. Now her only hope is government relief.

Earlier, excessive rains had damaged kharif crops. “Now we have to face severe fodder crunch too,” villagers say. With heavy rains following in the wake of the hailstorm, villagers haven’t had time to repair their homes.