Winter has been always chilling in the state's capital and this year was no exception. But something surprising happened on the outskirts of the city. A mild hail storm on Tuesday saw the whole place covered with snow like large ice sheets.
People living in 7 villages in Chevella, Moinabad and Shankarpally mandals in Ranga Reddy district, were the worst hit. They witnessed everything covered with snow as they woke up on Thursday.
Unofficially there are speculations that nearly nine people died, while several injured in the hail storm, most of them were from weaker sections who had no place to hide from this natural calamity. However the loss to livestock was beyond expectations due to the freezing temperatures and hard hitting ice storm.
Locals report that there was slight rainfall and heavy hail storm which lasted for nearly fifteen minutes. Eventually the whole place was covered by nearly one feet of ice. Around the same time the city experienced a slight drizzle, too.
The whole place looked distorted in the morning with roofs broken, livestock dead, roads blocked and crop devastated. A pathetic situation around....(Wishesh AarKay)
