Incessant rain hits paddy, cotton
crops; snow in HP higher areas
By Sarbjit Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 14 — Paddy and cotton crops in Punjab have suffered a major setback due to incessant rain for the past 72 hours in the state.

Informed sources said most of the damage to the paddy and cotton crops had been caused by the heavy velocity winds that accompanied the rain.

According to reports reaching here, the paddy crop in various parts of the state had been lodged by the high velocity winds. Such winds have also caused shedding of fruit bodies and flowers of the cotton crop in the Malwa belt.

Mr A.S. Randhawa, Director, Agriculture, Punjab, said that reports with regard to the damage to the cotton and paddy crops due to inclement weather were by and large true.

He said that the paddy crop had been flattened in certain districts. The fruit bodies and flowering of the cotton crop had also been affected, he added. However, so far no official estimate of the damage caused by hostile weather conditions had been made but it was widespread.

Already, with their backs to the wall, officials of the Punjab agriculture department were fighting to control the attack of American bollworm in the cotton belt. The prevailing wet weather had further provided conducive conditions for various pests, especially the bollworm, to flourish.

Mr Randhawa said that at certain places the attack of pests had crossed the economic threshold level (ETL) and farmers were doing their best to control the attack.

If the prevailing weather conditions continued for a day or two then it would become further difficult to control the pest attack, Mr Randhawa said. While at most places the cotton crop was at the flowering stage, in certain areas it was at the fruit stage. The same was the condition of paddy. At certain places it was at the harvesting stage while at other places it was nearing the ripening stage.

In fact, the harvesting of the short-duration paddy crop had already started in the state and so far 2.62 lakh tonnes of paddy have arrived in the markets in Punjab. It had been purchased by the private traders as official procurement agencies would enter the market for procurement of paddy in the state tomorrow.

When asked whether any damage had also been caused to paddy brought to markets for selling, an official of the Punjab Food and Supply Department said that no report in this connection had been received from the field.

The Punjab Government was expecting a bumper crop of paddy this year. It had estimated that the total output of paddy in the state would touch 120 lakh tonnes.

Meanwhile, the mystery disease which had hit the paddy crop in Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts has almost been identified. Official sources said that disease had been identified as "tundru". Already, four tests had been conducted and all had pointed out that it was a "tundru" disease.

A team of experts from Delhi and Hyderabad and some experts from abroad had toured the Gurdaspur- Amritsar paddy belt for two days to identify the disease. As experts were unable to identify the disease on the spot, they had taken samples to Delhi for conducting tests.

UNI adds: The higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh experienced first snowfall of the season, while the mid-hills and foothills and the north west plains had wide spread rain during the past 24 hours.

Reports reaching here from Shimla said, Keylong, headquarters of Lahaul Spiti district, had been experiencing snowfall since yesterday. A road at Rahili nullah in the area was blocked, the reports said.

The Rohtang pass, also had snowfall. Mild snowfall occurred at Sach pass near Shtrundi in Chamba district and higher reaches of Chachul and Bhatmuhan in the Tissa sector of the district.

Shimla and its surrounding areas were lashed by intermittent rain for the fourth day today, bringing sharp fall in the minimum temperature to 14.6°C. Reports of rain were also received from Kulu, Dharamsala, Mandi, Sirmour and Chamba.

According to the weather office here, the city and its surrounding areas experienced heavy and continuous rainfall of 17.1 mm and recorded the maximum temperature at 25.4°C, eight degrees below normal.

In Punjab, Patiala received 24.8 mm rainfall, the highest in the north west plains. Balachaur near Nawanshahr had 10.3 mm and Nangal experienced 7.8 mm rainfall. Ludhiana and Dhuri had mild showers to record 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm, respectively.

The rainfall was widely spread in Haryana with Rewari recording 24.4 mm rainfall, followed by Sonepat 24.0 mm, Ambala 21.0 mm, Jagadhari and Pehowa 20.0 mm, Hisar 7.7 mm, Fatehabad 6.0 mm, Gula 4.0 mm and Sona 2.0 mm.

Delhi was also lashed by rain with Palam observatory recording 11.0 mm rainfall. Safdarjung recorded 1.0 mm rainfall.

In Himachal Pradesh, Jabal recorded 32.8 mm rainfall, the maximum in the state, followed by Nadaun 19.1 mm, Dera Gopipur 18.0 mm, Hamirpur 16.0 mm, Dharampur 13.0 mm, Kangra 15.0 mm.

Shimla recorded 7.2 mm rainfall where the temperature remained two degrees below normal.

According to weather forecast, rain and thundershower will occur at many places in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana and heavy rains likely at isolated places in these three states.