DHARAMSHALA; Cyclone Phailin with wind gust of 240 Km per hour which battered the eastern coast of India for days finally made its landfall near Gopalpur in Ganjam district on Saturday night and moved inward regions causing extensive damages to crops, homes and communication links on its way.

The Tibetan settlement located at Chandragiri in Gajapati district which is around 90 km from Gopalpur falls directly on the path of the cyclone also suffered extensive damages to standing crops. However,  there has been no lose of lives.

According to the first hand damage assessment conducted by the settlement officials, almost 90 per cent of the maize crop have been destroyed. Many fruit trees were uprooted and some homes were damaged by falling trees and electricity poles.

The settlement has more than 3000 settlers with total farming area of around 2000 acres. Cultivation of single crop during rainy season is the primary source of livelihood for the settlers.  Electricity is not yet restored and communication links are still very poor.