The southeast monsoon that had shown the sign of revival during the first week of July is again playing hide and seek game as the monsoon has weakened leaving farmers and weather scientists worried.
Monsoon hutting Jharkhand during the first week of June had shown the sign of good rain as the first 10 days recorded good rain. The first spell of monsoon in June ended with surplus rain of 34 per cent in Jharkhand.
But in the first week of July, Jharkhand witnessed phenomena of break monsoon resulting in subdued rainfall activity across Jharkhand.
The monsoon got stuck over Uttar Pradesh resulting in less rain in Jharkhand. However, weather scientists believe that the break monsoon phenomenon may be over in the next one week. But there was no sign of the revival of the monsoon.
In July so far Jharkhand has received 403 mm rain which is 18 mm less than was predicted. At least 12 districts namely Bokaro, Chatra, Deoghar, West Singhbhum, Gadhwa, Gumla, Godda, Latehar, Pakur, Saraikela-Kharsawan, Khunti and Simdega have received less rainfall.
For instance Chatra received 389 mm rain which is 33 per cent less than the predicted rainfall.
Gumla has recorded a shortfall of 154 mm rain whereas Khunti has recorded 26 per cent less rain.
Bur rain god seems to be quite generous for Jamtara which has recorded 672.2 mm rain against predicted 468.9 mm. Similarly Lohardaga has received 643.6 mm rainfall in the last 20 days against predicted 397.1 mm.
Farmers are worried over erratic behaviour of rain. “July is the peak time for paddy sowing and there must be sufficient water in the field for paddy to grow for the next two months. But our paddy fields still don’t have sufficient water,” said Manoj Mahto, a farmer of Pithoria in Ranchi.