NAGPUR, Nov 4: The recent hailstorm had caused extensive damages to crops, especially orange, cotton and soyabean in the region and according to preliminary estimate the loss of crops in the district was around Rs 5 crore, informed Nagpur District Collector Malini Shankar

Talking to media persons here on Monday, she said that as many as 415 villages in the district were affected due to the week-long hailstorm, during the last week of October. The worst affected tehsils in the district were Narkehed and Saoner. As many as 60 villages of Saoner and 59 villages of Narkhed were affected following the natural calamity. Orange orchards of over Rs 1.5 crore were damaged due to heavy rains in the district.

There was no human loss due to hailstorm. However, as many as nine persons were killed due to electrocution last month. Four persons died in Umrer and Kuhi tehsil each while one person was killed in Kalmeshwar following the tragedy. District authorities had provided Rs 10,000 to the families of deceased, she informed.

Local authorities have provided the compensation for the people whose houses were damaged while compensation for destroyed crops would be given soon after the assessing the survey report. The report was prepared recently and sent to the government a few days back and the final decision in this regard would be decided by the Cabinet soon, said Malini.

The gravity of the hailstorm was gauged from the fact that the rainfall during the period was 10 per cent of the total annual rainfall, she added.Answering a question, she said that the authorities were not getting positive response in some places regarding total literacy movement launched last year in the district. However, the authorities were trying their level best to overcome the situation.

On reported dengue epidemic at Hudkeshwar, she asserted that the reasons for the epidemic are yet to be ascertained. ``However, it has been confirmed that the deaths were not due to malaria,'' he said.

According to her, three persons died due to the unknown disease. Fifteen blood samples have been sent to Pune for virological test to ascertain the reasons for the killer disease. She claimed that the situation was under control. ``We have informed the villagers to keep their surroundings clean. The root cause for the epidemic is unhygienic conditions of the area.

Meanwhile, district authorities are supplying drinking water to them through tankers,'' she said and informed that two teams of doctors were camping at the site.

Dr Kinkar, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nagpur Zilla Parishad, A T Joshi, the Additional Collector of Nagpur and other officials were also present during the press briefing.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.