TIRUCHY: Strong wind coupled with heavy rains that lashed on Sunday damaged around 500 coconut trees and 1,600 bags of traditional paddy in Thanjavur.

It is said that there was a heavy wind blowing on Sunday evening, followed by a downpour at Peravurani and the adjacent areas in Thanjavur.

Coconut trees at Tiruchitrambalam, Thuravikadu, Kurichi, Punavasal and Ottankadu near Peravurani were uprooted, and more than 50 electric poles fell.

The farmers said the heavy wind resembled the fury of Cyclone Gaja, and they had to keep themselves indoors until Monday morning. Power supply was suspended in around 10 villages until late hours.

“Most of the trees were in the fruiting stage, and all fell. In Punavasal alone around 100 trees fell,” said Vincent Arulraj, the coconut farmer from Punavasal. He also said that there was severe damage in the areas like Valsakadu, Madathikadu, Thuravikadu, Kurichi and Thiruchitrambalam villages.

“With around 20 minutes, all had happened and fearing further furious winds, we kept ourselves indoors,” Vincent further said.

Meanwhile, Sabari Nivas, a farmer from Palathali village who has been involved in organic farming for the past 8 years and was selling the traditional paddy varieties, had lost around 1,600 bags that he had stored in the godown built at Thuravikadu in an area of 4,000 sq ft.

“I had stored the traditional varieties like karuppu kavuni, maappillai samba, karung kuruvai, rathasaly, poongatru, kitchadi samba, thooya malli and thanga samba, but the wind blew away the roof of the godown drenching all that was stored,” Sabari Nivas said.