Some of the mangoes that survived the onslaught. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, April 22: Debu Mondal stares silently at the 21-bigha plot of land that once used to be his mango orchard. Today, only rows of bare branches and a ground carpeted with fallen leaves and dry mango blossoms meets the eye.

Even for the handful of fruits that had managed to survive the savage onslaught of nature, the prospect is not good. The rot has set in. Peppered with spots and dark patches, the mangoes will soon fall off from the t rees.

This has been one of the worst years for the mango growers of the district. The series of sporadic hailstorms that lashed the region and cyclones had destroyed chances of good mango crop.

District mango and garden development officer Samarendra Khanda today confirmed the mango growers’ worst fears. “The damage done to the trees by the cyclones and hailstorms is too great for repair this season.”

Official sources estimated that the losses suffered by the growers have already run into several crores.

The mango cultivation, which the district is famous for, is spread over 24000 hectares. Most of the 10 lakh trees have been badly affected by the vagaries of weather.

“Looking at the trend of the weather this year, we don’t think there will be many mangoes left for the growers to collect. The slim chance of the blossoms developing into mangoes was wiped out by last week’s cyclone,” they said.

The production, which was pegged at more than three lakh metric tons, has now been brought down to around 80,000 metric tons.

“But even that is not for sure. We thought the worst was over after the first squall hit the district two months ago. We had been wrong then. Who knows, the worst might be yet to come,” Khanda said.

Farmers said the Langra variety had been the worst affected. “We are pinning hopes on Fajli and Gopalbhog varieties, which will blossom in a few days from now, to tide us over this time of crisis,” they said.

“We were expecting a bumper crop this year,” said food-processing minister Sailen Sarkar. “We had planned ahead and made arrangements to export the surplus production. But there is no question of exporting the fruits any more. We might not even be able to supply enough for domestic consumption.”