KOCHI: Buckets of rain had flushed the state last June while deluge and devastation followed in July and August. A year later, showers are not coming even in droplets. Dark clouds, lightning flashes and rainbow arc are all missing on the horizon. Is the monsoon playing tricks with Kerala?
The monsoon usually hits Kerala coast by June 1 and copiously drenches the state within the next 30 days. Rain arrived eight days late this time. And three weeks into the southwest monsoon season, sun shines bright, clouds play hide-and-seek and temperature hovers around 32 degree Celsius.
Farmers are staring at the sky with anxiety writ large on their faces. Parched farmlands wait for pitter-patter raindrops that trickle through the soil spreading fragrance of wet earth and sprouting life.
Data available with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) says Kerala, which normally receives 54.99 cm rainfall in June, got only 35.5 cm this time --- a gaping 35 per cent deficit. The shortfall is 48 per cent in Idukki, Kerala’s hydel power house, and 55 per cent in Wayanad, the hilly agricultural terrain.
Only two districts, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, received normal rainfall. Blame it on the vagaries of nature or aftereffects of climate change, the state is grappling with an unprecedented water crisis.
The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has been hit hard with only 11 per cent water remaining in the reservoirs. Major dams of the KSEB and Irrigation Department have already touched dead-storage level.
The gross storage available in the KSEB dams can generate only 451.7 million units of power. Though daily power consumption stands at 75 million units, around 63 million units are purchased from the national power exchange.
Though IMD maintains rain will return by the weekend and monsoon will be near normal, farmers are sceptical.
According to IMD former director S Sudevan, it was Vayu, the cyclonic storm which developed in the Arabian Sea on June 10, that spelt doom for the state. It disturbed the pattern of rainfall and changed direction of the wind, pulling clouds towards Oman coast.
“Cyclones and depressions forming in the Arabian Sea during the onset of monsoon can adversely affect the pattern of rainfall on the Indian subcontinent. Now we’ve to wait for the cyclonic storm developing in the Bay of Bengal. It’s actually the depressions and cyclones in the Bay of Bengal that strengthen monsoon rainfall on the subcontinent. Late onset of monsoon won’t affect the quantum of rainfall. If rain is less in June, it’ll be compensated in the next three months,” said Sudevan.
Meanwhile, a low-pressure area has developed over northeast Bay of Bengal on Sunday, which is expected to intensify into a depression over the next 48 hours. According to the IMD, the depression can create conditions favourable for strengthening of monsoon. IMD has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall at one or two places in the state in a couple of days.