M A I N   N E W S

Twister leaves village in a maze
Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service

Fatehabad, July 23
Villagers working in their fields in Ahlisadar in Fatehabad were awestruck as they witnessed a phenomenon beyond their comprehension. They saw a “pipe” descending from the clouds, lifting water from flooded fields amid a strange whistling sound and the water so lifted sprinkled on neighbouring areas like a fountain.

Parveen Kamboj, a village youth, who was working in his fields, said the extraordinary sight left him paralysed and it took him some time to take out his mobile to take a picture. “The sky was covered with dark clouds and I was looking heavenwards when I noticed a descending pipe-like thing. When the water from the flooded fields was being lifted, its one end appeared attached to the clouds and the other to the earth,” said a mesmerised Kamboj.

Cotton crops in the area were left damaged. Leaves of plants ripped off were blown away.

“This is a tornado-like phenomenon,” said Dr Mahabir Jaglan, chairperson and associate professor at the Geography Department of Kurukshetra University after seeing pictures and speaking to Kamboj and other eyewitnesses about the event. Dr Jaglan teaches climatology in the university. He said this is a “very rare” phenomenon, particularly in this part of the country.

He said the descending cloud base represented the convergence of the upper tropospheric and low surface pressure, which happens in tornado formation. “An upper air cyclone has persisted over central Pakistan, northwest Rajasthan and adjoining northwestern Haryana since July 20.

Fatehabad and Sirsa districts have also experienced a large amount of energy release (latent heat) through evaporation from the flooded areas.

“A combination of these factors and the upper air cyclonic circulation must have led to a tornado-type extreme low-pressure system, leading to the water being lifted from the flooded fields in the form of a jet,” Dr Jaglan elaborated.