BENGALURU: With the state witnessing a deficit in South-Western (SW) and North-Eastern (NE) monsoon, many of the reservoirs are inching towards ultra-low levels. This is likely to result in a scary situation in the coming days as experts says it will affect drinking water supply during summer, including in Bengaluru.
According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre (KSNDMC), the South-Western monsoon has seen a deficit of around 20 percent to 50 percent across the state. However, with heavy rainfall in South interior region including Kodagu, Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajnagar and Malnad regions, the average rainfall figures look better than the situation on ground. The NE monsoon has fared much worse especially for North interior Karnataka, parts of South interior and coastal Karnataka.
Speaking to TNIE , Prof M B Rajegowda, an Agrometeorologist from the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) said because of the SW monsoon deficit, normally the NE monsoon picks up and vice versa. However, this time, both are in deficit.
“The NE monsoon deficit will affect farmers at large, especially those who grow maize, sunflower, green grams, horse grams, sesame and many more. Now that it is almost the end of November, it is late for farmers to try to cultivate any crops now. Even if any cloud activity takes place and cyclone related rains occur in December, that will make not much difference to farmers,’’ he said.