Generally beginning in June, the much sought after southwest monsoon is anticipated to fade away by the last days of September, which is going to turn on now.
The moisture-laden winds on reaching the southernmost point of the Indian Peninsula, due to its topography, become separated into two varied parts: the Arabian Sea Branch and the Bay of Bengal Branch. It is now on the last of its 4-month path.
It cannot altogether be denied that June rains, initiating with an energetic note, noted to be missing its fume midways. The monsoon does not suppose to have done better in August. Whatever it may be, unpredictable rains do impact the sowing of Kharif crops as usual.
Unless and until the monsoon revives rapidly, the final outputs of the seasonal crops would be adversely impacted. What can be indicated about the delayed sown crops in such conditions?
According to the available references, the Kharif crops have been sown in an area of 106.40 million hectares, which is 1.75 per cent less than the area covered during the related period last year, data shows.
As regards the monsoon, the showers remained around 10% less than the normal range. Almost all territories have cumulatively received less than normal rains except the parts of Southern India.
Nearly half of India’s farmland has no irrigation and is fully dependent on monsoon rains that account for 70–90% of annual rainfall. Farming contributes almost 15% to India’s $2.7 trillion economies but sustains more than half the population of 1.3 billion. It is Incredible India.
In the meantime, the peskiest thing is that the water levels in as many as 130 reservoirs, chiefly on account of the patchy rains, have declined below the last year’s level, except those existing in southern India.
Not only the irrigation and power generation capacity but also the ensuing Rabi sowing season will suffer in light of the scanty rains, which is a general belief. The Central Water Commission monitors the storage status of the country’s 130 reservoirs on a weekly basis. Out of these reservoirs, a total of 44 reservoirs have hydro-power benefits with an installed capacity of more than 60 MW.
The total storage capacity of these 130 reservoirs is 171.958 BCM (Billion Cubic Metres), about 66.70% of the storage capacity of 257.812 BCM. The storage available in these reservoirs is 108.583 BCM, which is 63% of the total storage capacity of these reservoirs. Last year the storage available in these reservoirs for the connected period was 130.629 BCM. The average of the last 10 years storage was 113.585 BCM.
Thus, the storage available in 130 reservoirs is 83% of the storage of the corresponding period of last year and 96% of storage of average of last 10 years, explains the CWC.