New Delhi: India’s only private weather forecast agency has reported that Kerala will receive the monsoon rains beginning 4 June. The agency said that the country will witness less than average rainfall in 2019.
This could mean that 2019 might turn out to be a bad year for the agricultural sector and the economy as a whole.
Monsoon showers first hit the Indian mainland in Kerala coast by 1 June and spreads to other parts of India by mid July. These rains decide the lifecycle of millions of farmers working across the country. The planting of rice, soya beans, and cottons begin with the monsoons.
The weather forecasting agency said that the country is likely to receive 93% rainfall of the long period average.
Skymet’s CEO, Jatin Singh, said, “All the four regions are going to witness lesser than normal rainfall, this season. East and Northeast India and central parts will be poorer than Northwest India and South Peninsula. Onset of monsoon will be around June 4. It seems that initial advancement of monsoon over peninsular India is going to be slow.”
Last year Kerala had witnessed a higher than normal rainfall which led to the dams getting flush with rainwater. For months on end incessant rainfall steadily raised the water levels in all the dams of the coastal state.
However, the Kerala government failed to fathom the rising danger and did not allow the timely release of water in the dams. In the end the shutters were opened when water began to overflow. The simultaneous opening of shutters of many dams led to a huge flood that wreaked havoc on lakhs of Keralites in the state.
Till date the government is maintaining that it was a natural disaster. However, many experts and ordinary people in the state say that the Kerala floods of 2018 was man-made.
