With the southwest monsoon activity intensifying all over Kerala five days after it touched down on the State’s coasts, extensive losses of property were reported on Sunday from various places in incessant heavy showers and strong winds.
According to weathermen, heavy rains may continue across Kerala till Monday evening. They said there had been considerable increase in the rainfall in the State since the start of the monsoon compared to the normal expected rainfall. As per reports on Sunday, sea erosion was rampant in several places on the Kerala coast.
Scientists said fishermen venturing out to the sea should remain extremely cautious as there was possibility that winds of speeds up to 55 KM per hour cold lash the coasts. They said waves rising up to three metres height might hit the coast.
As per rough estimates, a minimum of 130 houses had been damaged partially while 15 had been destroyed totally in the State since the onset of the monsoon on June 8. “It is only a rough estimate. The actual figure could be much higher,” said a Revenue official, adding that most of the cases of damages to houses had been reported from coastal areas.
Scores of farmers in Kuttanad in Alappuzha district, known as Kerala’s Rice Bowl, suffered huge losses on Sunday due to a breach in a bund. About 340 acres of farmland kept prepared for paddy cultivation after ploughing and other works in Ward 15 of Kainakari were submerged when the bund broke early Sunday morning due to over-flooding in heavy rains.
“Farmers had spent over Rs 7,000 per acre for preparing the farmland for cultivation. That means the total loss could come to several lakhs of rupees. Most of us had started the work with loaned money. Thank God that the flooding did not happen after planting of the paddy. However, the immediate concern is the possibility of more breaches in the bund,” said a farmer.
As the gush of water through the breach showed no signs of weakening, hundreds of people living in the area were trapped between the vast, flooded paddy field and the backwaters. Alappuzha District Panchayat authorities said relief camps would be opened by Monday morning for shifting the people to safety.
Agriculture Minister VS Sunilkumar said that all necessary steps were being taken to avert monsoon-related tragedies. “The Alappuzha district agricultural officer has been asked to furnish the details of the losses. There will be no delay in action,” he said. A State-level control room to monitor the monsoon-related situation has already been opened.
Reports said that most of the low-lying areas in Kollam district were remaining submerged for the past three days. Flood waters had entered many houses in the district including those in the outskirts of Kollam city. Intense sea erosion was reported from coastal villages like Iravipuram, Thanni and Mundakkal.
A section of the building of the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School at Mankada in Malappuram district collapsed on Sunday morning due to flooding of a foundation trench dug for a new building near the existing one. Three class rooms were destroyed, one totally and two partially, were destroyed but a terrible tragedy was averted as it was a holiday.
Meanwhile, reports of heavy rains came in from the high ranges of Idukki district where a 36-year-old man was killed in a landslip at the very start of the season. Tour operators said that there had been a considerable fall in the number of tourists travelling to places like Munnar and Thekkady in the high ranges. “But there can be a positive reversal soon,” said Padma Rajan, a Kochi-based tour operator.