Spare a thought for these places as they fell off this year’s monsoon map

Other states still in the red, in terms of rainfall, are Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

If you were to look at the figures for the entire country, it’s a different story: the country has had 8 per cent excess rainfall; of the 36 meteorological sub-divisions, 11 have had excess, 20 normal and only five sub-divisions have reported deficient rains.

But look closely: North Interior Karnataka is minus 25 per cent, Andaman and Nicobar islands minus 35 per cent, Kerala minus 23 per cent, Chhattisgarh minus 21 per cent. Each has at least 40-50 per cent area with scanty or deficient rainfall.

In Karnataka, except for the coastal areas, the situation is bad. Congress MP K B Krishnamurthy, who has been seeking Central relief for drought, says sowing has been done in less than 50 per cent of the area — confined to 16.83 lakh hectares as against 35.28 lakh hectares. This has badly affected paddy, ragi, jowar, maize and sugarcane.

The three districts that have had scanty rains (below 60 per cent of the normal) are Bellary, Chitradurga and Hassan.

In North Interior Karnataka, seven districts have received deficient rainfall. In South Interior Karnataka, four districts account for deficient rains and it has been scanty in three. The coasts, however, have received 3 per cent excess rainfall.

This is what made Krishnamurthy demand that the Government release 3 lakh metric tonnes of free rice. For last year’s drought, the state had demanded 10 lakh tonnes of grain and received 6.5 lakh tonnes.

According to the Met department, the interior areas of the country are experiencing low rainfall because there is a trough on the western coast curving towards the sea, hence bringing heavy rains along the coast.

To add to it, the wind speed has been at least 10 knots lower than expected, not strong enough to push the rain-bearing clouds to the rain-shadow areas. This apart, the monsoon was delayed by a week. Which means that 8-10 days of rains was lost.

Although reservoir levels are 110 per cent of last year’s levels, there are seven reservoirs — Aliyar in Tamil Nadu, Sriramsagar and Somasila in Andhra Pradesh, Gandhisagar, Madhya Pradesh, Bhima and Jayakwadi, Maharashtra and Balimela in Orissa — that do not have usable water as yet. The bottom-line: the monsoon’s far from perfect in the interiors.