M A I N   N E W S

Brace for more rain in next 24 hrs
Showers lash Punjab, Haryana; farmers’ worries pile up; last spell, says Met
Vibha Sharma & Sarabjit Dhaliwal /TNS

Water-logging at Delhi airport

n Heavy rains hit air traffic movement at the Delhi airport on Thursday with at least one flight diverted and four others asked to make a ‘go-around’ n The MeT office said it was one of the heaviest downpour, with 117 mm recorded within an hour, which could completely submerge any low-lying airport like Mumbai n Waterlogging on the arrival side of the airport caused much inconvenience to passengers

New Delhi/Chandigarh, September 15
With the monsoon extending its stay beyond the normal departure date of September 15, many parts of north India, including Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana and Delhi received widespread rain today. An active western disturbance over north Pakistan and adjoining Jammu and Kashmir added to the intensity of showers, increasing the worries of paddy and cotton growers of the region.

However, IMD Director General Ajit Tyagi told The Tribune that showers were expected to subside by Saturday and this probably was the last spell of rain this season.

“While the monsoon will remain active over east and adjoining central India during the next 2-3 days, the rainfall activity is expected to decrease over the northwest region from Saturday onwards,” he added. While Punjab till early this morning was nine per cent deficient, almost within the normal range, the meteorological subdivision of Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi is minus 23 (-23) per cent deficient. The deficiency is largely due to several parts of Haryana not receiving good rains this season.

For now, the IMD has predicted isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall over Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the next 24 hours. Isolated heavy rainfall would occur over west Uttar Pradesh and Jammu division in the next 24 hours.

Figures received by the IMD till about 5.30 pm this evening suggest that Fatehgarh Sahib had received 110 mm, Patiala 89 mm, Samrala 59 mm, Hoshiarpur 39 mm and Gurdaspur 25 mm rainfall. Chandigarh received 28 mm rains while Ambala recorded 87 mm rainfall. Other places in Haryana that received rainfall included Kurukshetra (39 mm), Hisar (27 mm), Rohtak (53 mm) and Bhiwani (22 mm). In Delhi, Palam received 120 mm rains.

“Fairly widespread rain and thundershowers would continue over east and adjoining central India and northeastern states till September 20, however, the northwest will experience subdued rainfall activity,” said Tyagi.

Heavy showers in Punjab have caused a considerable damage to kharif crops - mainly cotton and paddy. Official sources said that incessant rain since this morning has hit the cotton crop hard in the Malwa belt. Official sources said the damage would be in the range of 10 to 15 per cent across the state. However, in the waterlogged belt of Muktsar-Abohar and Fazilka and low-lying areas of Sangat and Talwandi Saboo, the damage to cotton would be up to 50-70 per cent. Attack of blight on cotton has also been noticed in certain places there.

Farmers in Punjab were expecting bumper paddy and cotton production this year. But the inclement weather, it seems, is bent upon dashing their hopes. Owing to damage to cotton and paddy crop, Punjab may have to bring down its initial estimate to produce 21 lakh bales of cotton and 160 lakh tonne of paddy this year. However, in the adjoining Haryana, there hasn’t been much damage to crops.

“Rain is quite harmful for cotton and paddy at this stage,” said GS Buttar, Head of the Agronomy Department of the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. “When the bolls start opening, sunny weather is a must for the cotton crop,” he added.

Inundation of cotton fields has started withering of the crop at certain places. “Rain will not only hit the yield of the cotton but it will also affect its quality. Besides, the high level of humidity will increase the threat of diseases,” said Jagtar Singh Brar, assistant plant protecting officer of the PAU.

“Paddy crop is also at the crucial stage now. The process of the grain formation in paddy plants has already begun. But the rain is proving to be a spoiler”, said GS. Raomana, PAU’s extension specialist at Mansa.

Buttar said it would be difficult to exactly specify that how much damage the latest spell of rain has caused to paddy and cotton crops but it appears to be considerable.

In the past 24 hours, widespread rainfall has also occurred across west and east UP, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Maharashtra, Vidarbha, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Satellite images shows convective clouds over parts of northwest, central and east India, interior Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, south Karnataka, southeast Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea and east central and southeast Arabian Sea.