Rare tornado seen in Haryana village

FATEHABAD - Water from the fields rising in a streak hundreds of feet up in the air. This was a rare sight seen by a youth in Haryana’s Fatehabad district. And Met officials say it was a rare tornado he had witnessed.

Ahlisdar village, nearly 280 km from Chandigarh, had never seen such a phenomena of nature earlier. But the youth, Parveen Kamboj who was tending to his fields, had the presence of mind to take pictures of the tornado on his mobile phone Thursday evening.

“I was working in my fields with dark clouds overhead. After a while, I saw a pipe-like thing in the sky lifting water from the fields. The ‘dhar (streak) was connecting the clouds with the earth,” Kamboj said, still excited about the phenomena he saw.

The tornado continued for a few minutes.

Experts on climatic conditions say that the streak of water was a tornado, a rare occurrence in India.

“Normally, such tornadoes are commonly found in certain parts of the US. These are rare in India but this is not the first instance. This happens when there is formation of multi-cells in the clouds and there are a lot of winds. The streak comes from the clouds and lifts water,” Chandigarh Metereological centre director Surender Paul told IANS.

Paul said that tornadoes, though rare in north India, have occurred around Ludhiana in Punjab, 110 km from Chandigarh, in 2007, 1997 and 1978. These happen in northeastern states sometimes, he added.

“Such a tornado can cause extensive damage to crops and property,” Paul added.

Krishna Mohan, chairperson of Panjab University’s Department of Geography in Chandigarh, told IANS: “This is neither common nor abnormal. Such things happen in nature. There is a basic requirement for such a thing to happen. When the conditions are fulfilled, a tornado occurs.”

The tornado, which hit the village in Fatehabad, this week did not result in any loss of life or property. But crops were damaged in some fields it crossed.