Hyderabad: Monsoon blues are back to haunt Telangana State. While the state recorded a deficit rainfall of -53 per cent, water levels in the major reservoirs which supplies water to the state plummeted to 290.25 TMC as against 317 TMC last year during the same period.
Barring state capital Hyderabad, all the nine districts are reeling under deficit to scanty rainfall and sugarcane rich Nizamabad and Nalgonda districts being the worst hit.
“Due to erratic rains, farmers have been advised to sow hardy crops like red gram, jowar and castor among others where sowings are delayed,” an agriculture official told this newspaper.
Delayed monsoon and erratic rainfall in the month of June have made the crops face moisture stress in Telangana districts. With rains playing hide and seek, the sown area in the state has dropped by 3.46 lakh hectares, according to the agriculture department officials. Due to intermittent rains, the total area sown in the state is 23.30 lakh hectares as against the normal of 26.76 lakh hectares. The total crop area in Telangana is 40.38 lakh hectares.
Low pressure areas formed there resulted in slight rainfall in Telangana districts in the last week. Meteorological department has forecast isolated heavy rains in Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Adilabad.
“The south-west monsoon is crucial for agriculture. The south-west monsoon which reached Kerala on June 7 covered the entire Telangana districts by June 21. But the monsoon has been erratic until the last week of July,” Met reported.
The average rainfall received in Telangana State from June 1 to July 23 shows a deficit of -53 per cent. Nizamabad and Nalgonda received the least rainfall while seven other districts of Adilabad, Medak, Warangal, Karimnagar, Ranga Reddy, Mahbubnagar and Khammam received deficit rainfall of -20 per cent to -59 per cent. Worse, plummeting water levels in major reservoirs which supplies water to the state is a matter of grave concern.
According to the irrigation department, major reservoirs were holding 290.25 TMC as on June 23 as against 317 TMC in Almatti, Narayanpur, Ujjaini Dam, Jurala, Thungabhadra, Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar, Singur, Nizamsagar, Jaikwadi, Sriramsagar, Lower Manair dam, Velugodu, Somasila, Kandaleru and Yeleru.
