Jharkhand’s rain deficit touches 51%; fear of drought looms large in several districts

Jamshedpur: A fear of drought looms large in several districts as Jharkhand is experiencing one of the worst monsoon seasons in recent years.

July, the second and the peak month of the monsoon season, lacked downpours, and the rainfall  so far was not enough to make up the deficit that stood at 51 per cent as of date.

According to data  available from IMD’s Ranchi Meteorological Centre, Jharkhand received 192 mm rainfall against a normal of 391 mm so far after the advent of monsoon resulting in a 51 per cent deficit, which according to weathermen is very difficult to get recovered by the end of this month unless it rains heavily.

Met statistics revealed that as many as 50 per cent of districts ie, 12 were facing scanty rainfall (deficit ranging between 60 and 99 per cent) and thus they stand a chance of facing a drought-like situation as the Kharif plantation work has been adversely affected.

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The most affected districts are Sahibganj which is facing a rain deficit of  82 per cent, the highest in the state.

The other districts in the scanty rainfall list facing heavy rain deficit included Chatra (78 per cent), Garhwa (76 per cent), Pakur (75 per cent), Jamtara (72 per cent),  Godda (68 per cent), Latehar (63 per cent), Palamu (61 per cent),  Ramgarh (61 per cent), Hazaribagh (62 per cent), Koderma (61 per cent) and Deoghar (60 per cent).

Met data suggested that never before in the last 10 years has Jharkhand faced such a huge rain deficit  which went against the IMD forecast which was issued at the time of onset of monsoon around mid- June.

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Weathermen are keeping their fingers crossed. A forecast of light rain was issued for various districts today.

The forecast issued by IMD’s Ranchi Met Centre also indicated thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and heavy rain over southern , northern and north western Jharkhand this weekend ( Saturday ). Isolated pockets of southern and central Jharkhand were also expected to experience lightning and thunder  in the next 24 hours.