With the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicting more rainfall in central parts of the country, the prevailing flood situation in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh could aggravate.
The IMD in its forecast has said the monsoon is likely to be active over central and northwest India during the week (August 19-25), while southeast India and the south peninsula are expected to get below-normal rainfall.
Meanwhile, the ministry of water resources in a statement said the Ken river is likely to flow in ‘moderate to high’ flood situation in Damoh and Panna districts of Madhya Pradesh and Mahoba and Banda districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Similarly, the Betwa river is likely to flow in ‘moderate to high’ flood situation in Vidisha, Sagar, Ashoknagar and Tikamgarh districts of Madhya Pradesh and Lalitpur, Jhansi, and Jalaun districts of Uttar Pradesh.
The met department has forecast that rainfall is expected to be active over northern parts of central India and adjoining north and northwest parts of the country during the next week (August 26-September 1). In “rest of the region, the rainfall will be normal to below normal,” the IMD noted.
As per the IMD data, the quantum of rainfall during June 1-August 20 was more than 618 mm, which is 1% less than the benchmark – the long period average (LPA). Till date, 14% of the country’s area has got ‘excess’ rainfall while 70% has received ‘normal’ rainfall. Only 16% of the areas have received deficient rainfall. With the exception of Punjab, Gujarat region, coastal Karnataka, where rainfall was ‘deficient’, most parts of the country have so far received ‘normal’ or ‘excess’ monsoon rainfall.
Earlier in the month, the IMD had stated that rainfall during the second half (August–September) would be ‘above normal’ at 107% of the LPA with a model error of ± 8%.The met department had also reiterated its June’s forecast by stating that overall rainfall during the monsoon season (June-September) will be 106% of LPA.
While June rainfall constitutes 18% of the total rainfall received during the monsoon season (June- September), showers during July (33%) and August (29%) are critical for kharif crops sowing. The IMD categories monsoon rains under four categories — <90% of benchmark (deficient), 90-96% (below normal), 96-104% (normal) and 104-110% (above normal) and 110%> (excess).
According to the ministry of agriculture data released last week, kharif sowing so far was 6% more compared with the previous year. With the exception of cotton and sugarcane, which are down by 8%, sowing of all the key kharif crops exceeded last year’s figures.
Sowing of kharif crops which usually begins after the onset of monsoon rains in early June, has crossed 992 lakh ha so far, against 938 lakh ha a year ago.
