NEW DELHI: Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has taken note of the heavy rainfall and hailstorms affecting several States.
He has directed officials from the Agriculture Ministry to assess the crop damage caused by adverse weather conditions and to discuss the situation with the agriculture ministers of the impacted states.
Chouhan has instructed officials to reach out to authorities in the affected areas to gather more information. He assured farmers that the Modi Government stands by them during the crisis.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecasted moderate rainfall across much of the country over the next three days due to consecutive Western Disturbances.
Northwest India is expected to experience widespread light to moderate rainfall along with isolated thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds until April 9.
The IMD reported that heavy rainfall (ranging from 70-110 mm), hailstorms, and thunderstorms accompanied by squally winds could damage crops that are ready for harvest, such as wheat, oilseeds, and various horticultural crops, in different regions of the country.
Data shows that heavy rainfall has been recorded in Arunachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, while hailstorm activity has occurred at isolated locations in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, eastern Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, and Telangana.
Additionally, thunderstorms with gusty winds, reaching speeds of 50-80 km/h, have affected isolated areas in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gangetic West Bengal, Marathwada, and Tamil Nadu, causing damage to standing crops.
Winds with speeds of 30-50 km/h were reported from several other states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Meghalaya, Madhya Maharashtra, Coastal Maharashtra, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Odisha.
The IMD also observed that maximum daytime temperatures were significantly above normal (by 3.1°C to 5.0°C) in Bihar, and above normal (by 1.6°C to 3.0°C) in Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Karaikal.
Conversely, below-normal temperatures were recorded in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, northern Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh, while interior Karnataka reported near-normal temperatures in comparison to other regions of the country.