11 irrigation tanks full; standing crop inundated in Vellore

VELLORE: The northeast monsoon resulted in a total of 11 irrigation tanks in various areas of Vellore district filling up. The last one to fill up was the Sethuvalai irrigation tank, which started overflowing on Friday.

Though the brimming tanks made the farmers happy, the flood in nearby Palar river, which entered the Sethuvalai irrigation tank through the supply channel resulted in standing cholam and paddy crops being inundated in around 15 acres in the area.

Local farmers were harvesting the cholam earlier due to water stagnation. “We can only use it to feed our livestock as the crop gets damaged by the stagnant water,” a farmer said.

Similarly, standing paddy crop ready for harvest was affected when continuous rain resulted in water stagnating on the fields at Melpadi in Katpadi taluk in the district.

While Vellore and surrounding areas experienced sunshine for the last two days, flow in the Palar continued, but not with the ferocity seen last year when vehicles and people were washed away, specially near the ground level causeway at Virinjipuram about 12 km from Vellore along the NH.

TN Pollution control green champion award winner G Srikant of Ulli near Madanur said, “flows in the Palar were muted due to lesser volume of water. The bridge which was twice washed away by the current was rebuilt and is now helping the school children immensely to cross over to the government HSS located on the Madanur side.”