Villagers in Madhya Pradesh mistake weather balloon as UFO

BHOPAL: An elderly farmer living in the parched Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh is saddened by an ‘unidentified flying object’ (UFO) which landed on his farm attracting hundreds of curious villagers who ran over his standing crops to catch a glimpse of the ‘alien’.
It was later found to be a weather balloon – also known as radiosondes – that has a reputation of being mistaken for UFOs. While the object may look strange to the layman, they are harmless, say experts.

However, the ownership of this radiosonde remains a mystery as no Met officials in the state have claimed its launch so far.
Incident took place at Kherakasar village, located 70km from Chhatarpur district headquarters, this week triggering panic among people. They mistook the object for an ‘UFO’ or a ‘bomb’ and made frantic calls to the police.

“We received information around two or three days ago. Nothing as such was found. They need not worry about it,” said Chhattarpur SP Sachin Sharma.
Police were also not sure about this instrument, as they too had seen it for the first time.
Meanwhile, the farmer whose field was stormed by villagers to see the object is worried over other damages. He has suffered a massive crop loss.

“I saw it falling around 11.30am and ran aside. It had a long wire also. When people around came to know about it, they came running to my farm, running over crops despite all my efforts to stop them. Let the government decide upon compensating the loss,” said the farmer Nathu.

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Times of India can be found here ***