Hyderabad: As Telangana awaits the arrival of the southwest monsoon, which is making sluggish progress and is running late, it has emerged that 31 of 33 districts of the state have fallen severely behind in terms of the average rainfall for the season.
As per the TS Planning and Development Society, which monitors weather through 1,044 automated weather stations, 27 districts, including Hyderabad, as on June 15, have been experiencing ‘large deficient’ of rain since June 1. Four others have ‘deficient’ rain and only two districts — Vikarabad and Narayanpet – have received what is considered normal rain during the first two weeks of June.
As per TSPDS, a mere 13 of its automated weather stations in its 1,044-unit network have reported rain this month.
The large deficient districts have received minus-60 to minus-96 per cent of normal rainfall, according to TSPDS data released on Wednesday. The delayed onset of the monsoon, is expected to have some impact on the Kharif crop season that begins in June and ends in September.
Timely rains are crucial for Telangana’s Kharif crop season as up to 55 per cent of the cultivated area — around 1.36 crore acres — is rainfed. Cotton, mainly rainfed, occupies around 65 lakh acres.
Even if there are some rains in the next two weeks or so, farmers should not rush to plant seeds, the state agriculture department advised. “The advisory is that planting should not be taken up until there is enough moisture in the soil to assist germination,” additional director, agriculture, K. Vijay Kumar said. “The farmers do know this, but if they rush into planting with improper moisture, then it will affect germination and related problems,” he told Deccan Chronicle.
The Indian Meteorological Department did provide some hope stating that there is a possibility of rains in Telangana soon along with the monsoon advancing into the state in the next few days, with predictions of rains from June 20 through July 10. However, private weather forecasters had previously said that most of central parts of the country, including Telangana, could face a ‘dismal’ rain scenario.
The monsoon, as of now, is running about a week behind schedule in reaching Telangana.
