No rains, no umbrellas

Shopkeepers in the picturesque Alur and Sakleshpur taluks in Hassan, often described as the ‘poor man's Ooty’, will tell you that you don't always need a rain gauge to measure the increase or dip in rainfall here because the sale of umbrellas in their shops is as good a marker. The drastic dip in the sale of umbrellas in the two taluks, which traditionally see heavy rainfall, is proportionate to the decrease in rainfall.

Shopkeepers, who made a good income by selling umbrellas during the rainy season, are facing the burden of clearing the stock. Not only umbrellas, the sale of raincoats and plastic sheets meant to cover vehicles and goods in agricultural farms has also come down.

Prasanna Kumar, who has been a resident of Sakleshpur for the last 35 years, sells umbrellas in his shop. “This year, I sold umbrellas worth around Rs. 25,000. Each umbrella costs between Rs. 100 to Rs. 600. Earlier, I was selling umbrellas worth Rs. 1.25 lakh in a year,” he told The Hindu . He has not been able to clear the stock he ordered in June this year. This has been the case with many shopkeepers in the two Malenadu taluks.

B.J. Vinay, the keeper of a small shop at the Ballupete village on NH 75, said he used to sell umbrellas worth over Rs. 50,000 annually, till 2014. “This year, I have not placed fresh orders. I am clearing the stock I purchased last year. So far, I have not sold even 50 umbrellas,” he says.

A steep drop in rainfall has been recorded in both taluks. The State government has declared Alur as drought-hit along with other taluks of the district, but not Sakaleshpur. The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre’s records show that since June 1, the cumulative rainfall recorded in Belagodu, Sakaleshpur, Kasaba and Hanabalu Hobli show a decline by 51 per cent, 14 per cent and 13 per cent respectively, against the normal rainfall. In the month of October, the taluk recorded only 82 mm of rainfall against a normal of 200 mm. In Alur, the cumulative rainfall since June 1 has been recorded at 39 per cent less than normal.

B.R. Manjunath, a native of the Banavase village, recalls that carrying an umbrella was a must during his schooldays, right from the time the schools reopened in June and the monsoons began. “Nowadays, I don’t see students holding an umbrella because there is no rain,” he says.