After a spell of heavy rainfall in Jharkhand, the State Government has directed the Deputy Commissioners to immediately provide relief to the farmers by doing external assessment of their districts. The direction was passed in after the heavy rainfall in the state which is expected to put negative impact on the ‘Kharif’ crops in the State.
“The DCs have been asked by the Disaster Management Secretary to provide immediate relief to the farmers after making proper assessment of the losses incurred by the farmers in their districts,” said State Programme Manager of Disaster Management Colonel SK Srivastav.
Sources in the department however, asserted that the process of providing funds to those districts in the state has been started. “Rs 40 lakh has been allotted for Godda as a relief fund after they provided us the assessment relief. We are releasing the funds as and when we are getting the assessment report,” said an official in the Disaster Management Department requesting anonymity.
According to Srivastav, the recent rainfall will have a negative impact on the Kharif crops as well as perennial crops incurring heavy losses to the farmers of this state which could be averted by taking some preventive measures.
“The farmers were earlier warned to cut their crops and put them inside before the weather takes an ugly turn, keeping them safe by properly covering them under waterproof materials,” said Srivastav. The meteorology department had also issued warnings of hail, squall and thunderstorm across the state. The warning has also been issued for Tuesday, with the weather office predicting heavy winds blowing at 60 kilometers an hour, he added.
Weather experts on the other hand, believed that the western disturbances caused rainfall, if comes beyond a certain limit, was always beneficial for the crops but if comes with hail and speeding winds, it may cause heavy losses on the kharif and perennial crops.
“The present western disturbances are due to the global change in the weather which is not new for Jharkhand but if it comes along with the hails and speeding winds it may cause heavy losses to the farmers,” said weather scientist at Birsa Agriculture University in Ranchi. Rains are always good for the crops but speeding winds might bring in losses to them.
Jharkhand in the last few days witnessed heavy rainfall on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Ranchi recorded 1.4 mm rainfall on Monday with Jamshedpur and Bokaro also recording trace rainfall. Daytime temperatures in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Bokaro were recorded at 29.6, 33 and 34 degrees Celicius respectively, five notches below normal in average.
The weather office predicted more showers in coming days as another western disturbance develops over Jammu and Kashmir. The system, which will directly affect northern states from Wednesday, will bring in showers in the coming days, provided it gets enlarged and incurs moisture.