While the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a normal southwest monsoon for entire Odisha this year, weather experts have questioned the present system of prediction as the whole State has been taken as one zone.
“Taking the entire State as one zone has proved wrong in past and farmers have suffered as different places experienced varied rainfall during the monsoon,” pointed out experts.
The IMD on Monday predicted that the monsoon would be normal this year with rainfall of 97 per cent of the long period average (lPA) with an error of plus or five per cent.
While the IMD is taking entire State as ‘one zone’ and predicting monsoon, experts feel that Odisha is distinctly divided into at least three zones, coastal, western and southern and, thus, the IMD prediction goes wrong.
It was all discussed at a review meeting Chief Secretary AP Padhi held with the IMD officials at the Secretariat recently.
“Instead of an overall prediction, there should be zone-specific information made available to the farmers as it is available in Karnataka,” he said.
Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi was present. He had raised this issue in the meeting of the SRCs and Disaster Management Secretaries held in New Delhi on 18 May.
He urged the IMD to change its present system of information dissemination and predict monsoon for various zones of the State separately.
While he pressed for use of modern method, Secretaries and SRCs of other State Secretaries and SRCs supported him, said sources.