An unusually potent storm system lashed India over the weekend, bringing copious rain across a large swathe of the country , from J&K to Karnataka, in what Met officials described as a rare occurrence for this time of the year.
The system is expected to blow over by Tuesday morning, but not before it drenches most of north and central India, as well as parts of the south, and dumps a few feet of fresh snow in the Himalayas.
“There was intermittent, heavy rainfall across large parts of the country on Sunday . Such widespread rain at this time of the year is not very common. The wet weather in north and central India will continue for at least another day ,“ said B P Yadav , director, India Meteorological Department. Between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm, around 40 mm of rain was recorded in Kanpur (UP), Katra (J-K) and Bhavnagar (Gujarat) while Delhi (Ridge), Pachmarhi (MP) and Ratnagiri saw close to 30 mm.
It has been raining woes for farmers since Saturday night as a rare confluence of weather systems drenched large parts of the country , flattening standing crops at many places and damaging vegetable fields. The matter was raised in Lok Sabha on Monday , with members seeking special packages for farmers as reports of crop damage came in from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, MP , Maharasthra, UP and Uttarakhand, among others.
As unseasonal heavy rainfall accompanied by strong winds lashed most parts of Punjab and Haryana on Sunday , farmers suffered damage to wheat crops at a few pockets of Sirsa, Ambala and Karnal (in Haryana), as well as Bathinda, Muktsar and Amritsar in Punjab. Sugarcane and vegetables too suffered.
The showers took a heavy toll on crops across Uttar Pradesh. Wheat was hit in east UP while potatoes and tomatoes got damaged in central-west districts. Mango growers in Malihabad, too, complained that the downpour had damaged 10%-15% of the crop. Be sides, they feared an outbreak of a fungus infection due to the untimely rains and the sudden drop in temperature.
Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has sought a survey of the damages for fixing compensation to farmers.
Reports from east UP districts like Varanasi and Gorakhpur said the standing wheat crop suffered over 50% loss while other crops including arhar, mustard, pea and gram were also hit.
The downpour in central India could hit the output of Madhya Pradesh's famous sharbati variety of wheat. The wetness may lead to the crop losing its S factor -shape, size and shine -said experts.
The unseasonal rains in Chhattisgarh not only threatened the young chick peas crop in about 4 lakh hectares but also the huge quantities of paddy stocked in the open, state government sources said.
In Maharashtra's Nashik district, which saw a massive downpour of 594.4mm on Saturday and 448.5mm on Sunday , preliminary estimates show 4,295 hectares of farmland of 4,910 farmers were affected.Across the region, grapes, pomegranates and other cash crops along with wheat, onion suffered damage.
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