According to information shared by the administration, crops on more than 8,400 acres and horticultural crops on 1,700 acres were damaged.
First responders to Cyclone Michaung clear a fallen tree blocking a road in Vijayawada. (Supplied)
Cyclone Michaung, which crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast close to Bapatla on 5 December and subsequently weakened into a cyclonic storm, has left a trail of destruction in its wake.
While the state government has assured compensation, severely affected tenant farmers are not hopeful of relief as they believe it may not reach them.
They said the landowners may not share the relief amount with them.
According to information shared by the Nellore district administration, crops on more than 8,400 acres and horticultural crops on 1,700 acres were damaged.
In Krishna district, paddy on 17,000 hectares, groundnut on 903 hectares, black gram on 2,275 hectares and cotton on 213 hectares, among others were destroyed.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to release in advance the second instalment of the Centre’s contribution to the SDRF of ₹493.60 to Andhra Pradesh and ₹450 crore to Tamil Nadu in view of floods caused by cyclone Michaung.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah shared this in a post on X.
The prime minister has approved the first urban flood mitigation project of ₹561.29 crore for Integrated Urban Flood Management Activities for the Chennai Basin Project under the National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF), which also includes central assistance of ₹500 crore, Shah said.
Severe cyclonic storm Michaung has affected Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Though the extent of damage is varied, many areas of these states are inundated, thus affecting standing crops.
To help the state Governments with the management of relief necessitated by the cyclonic…
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) December 7, 2023
A statewide estimate of the crop loss is yet to emerge as a note from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said agriculture and horticulture damage will be assessed after rainwater recedes.
Civil Supplies Minister K Venkata Nageshwar Rao visited the villages of Gopuvanipalem, Kondiparru, Tarakaturu, Arthamuru and Sultan Nagaram in Machilipatnam, and interacted with the farmers, an official release said.
“We have directed officials to provide crop insurance, input subsidy and also procure grains irrespective of the moisture content,” said Rao.
According to the Civil Supplies Department, the government has procured 1.37 lakh metric tonnes of paddy through online mode and 1.1 lakh metric tonnes offline until Wednesday, paying ₹1,070 crore to farmers.
If tenant farmers sell their paddy through a society, the government will pay them through those societies.
However, tenant farmers in the state are not pinning hopes on the compensation provided by the state government.
Gilli Venkeshwar Rao, a tenant farmer from Taderu village in West Godavari district told PTI: “Whatever compensation given by the government will only go to the owner of the field and not to the tenant farmer… Hardly 10 percent of those owners share that compensation with the tenant farmer.”
Recounting the misery brought by the cyclone, Venkateswar Rao said though he harvested the produce before the rains began on 3 December, the paddy got drenched in the showers.
He further said hundreds of acres of paddy fields in the nearby villages of Bethapudi, Taderu and Tundurru were flooded after the cyclone made landfall.
Investing at least ₹30,000 per acre, Venkateshwar Rao said tenant farmers were engaged in cultivation only to continue the way of life passed on to them by their ancestors.
Noting that the floodwater will take at least 20 days to recede from the fields, he said the cyclone has left the farmers in despair.
Gangumalla Venkat Rao, another tenant farmer from the same district, pointed out that the paddy will start sprouting, and fish (guraka) will start feasting on the fallen and submerged sheaves.
“Paddy will also start rotting. It will be rendered useless. Further, the sheaves will stick to the wet mud and get sucked into the ground. And the heat will cause the paddy to germinate and sprout. It is better to plough it up. We cannot even recover the cost of harvest,” he rued, explaining the travails of an average tenant farmer.
He said Kharif farm operations that were disrupted by rains are disturbing the regular farm cycle and affecting Rabi schedules to further push them forward by a few weeks.
A delayed Kharif will also delay the next Rabi season, he added.
Nadella Trimurthulu, another farmer, stressed that the salvage operations will cost more and add up to the investment already made in Kharif.
“We have reached a point where we cannot even have some straw as fodder for our cattle. Not only the crop is lost but we don’t have fodder for the cattle,” said Trimurthulu.
Lamenting over difficulties faced in carrying out farming nowadays, he said agriculture enthusiasts may end with their generation as their own children lack any interest.
The storm damaged 770-kilometre roads, uprooted 35 trees and killed three livestock, among others.
According to data shared by the CMO, nearly 40 lakh people from 194 villages and two towns were affected by Michaung’s impact, including the inundation of 25 villages.
Though there was no loss of human life on Tuesday, Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority Director BR Ambedkar told PTI that a four-year-old boy died after a hut wall caved in on him in Tirupati district on Monday.
While another person died in Bapatla district, Superintendent of Police Vakul Jindal told PTI that the cause of death was not related to the cyclone.
“The lone deceased person was found in a drunken state on a road by his motorcycle, which was not submerged under water, in the Inkollu village,” Jindal said.
Across the state, 204 relief camps are accommodating 15,173 evacuees. As part of relief efforts, 18,073 food packets and more than 1 lakh water packets were distributed. Eighty health camps were also organised.
For the affected districts, the state government has sanctioned ₹23 crore for relief efforts.
The damaged structures include 78 huts and a cattle shed while 232 houses were marooned. Two kuccha houses were fully damaged.
Under the roads and buildings department, 770 kilometres of surface roads suffered damage in the districts of Konaseema (234 kilometres), Prakasam (55 kilometres), Nellore (433 kilometres) and Tirupati (48 kilometres).
Nellore also witnessed the highest number of trees being uprooted with 29 out of the total 35.
Under the municipal administration department, 376 streetlights and 7.5 kilometres of roads were damaged.
Fourteen minor irrigation sources were also damaged in Tirupati.
The Andhra Pradesh Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd suffered damage to 13 33-KV feeders, 312 11-KV feeders, 29 33/11-KV sub-feeders, nine 33-KV poles, 140 11-KV poles and 244-LT poles.
Under the influence of the severe cyclonic storm, 10 places — seven in Tirupati and three in Nellore — experienced more than 200 mm rainfall on Tuesday.
Manubolu in the Nellore district recorded 366.5 mm of rainfall.
Six State Disaster Response Force and an equal number of National Disaster Response Force teams were pressed into service on Tuesday.
With the rainwater receding, the state government has decided to enumerate agriculture and horticulture damage, the CMO said.
(With PTI inputs)
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