Monsoon: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh heave sigh of relief

Hyderabad: The Indian Meteorological Department has announced a normal monsoon across India. However, for the two Telugu speaking states, the monsoon could be similar to that of 2016, or probably slightly less, with a variation of 4 per cent.

Director-General of Meteorology of the IMD, Dr K.J. Ramesh, told this newspaper that the monsoon will be normal for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, as it was in 2016.

“However, the Rayalseema region may not get sufficient rain because the area falls in the rain shadow region. The Andhra Pradesh government has to re-think the surface water management programme, especially for districts in Rayalaseema,” he said.

There has been an alarming decrease in water levels in all major irrigation dams in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The IMD director-general said that one can only hope there will be good inflows this year in Mahabaleshwar, the origin of the Krishna river, and Nashik, the origin of the Godavari river in the Western Ghats. A good rain in the central parts of Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh will also improve the water inflows into the river Godavari considerably.

The Krishna and Godavari rivers are the principal contributors and major sources of water for the two states, whose rivers originate in the western region and may have good inflows this season.

Both the Telugu-speaking states are heavily dependent on the monsoons, particularly on the south-west monsoon. All major reservoirs — Narayanpur, Almatti, Jurala, Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar — are almost dry.

There were no rains in the Tungabhadra basin, resulting in nil inflows in rivers in Andhra Pradesh last year. The local weather bureau said it would release an explicit monsoon forecast for the two states in mid-June 2017.