After a break stretching over a fortnight, Jharkhand finally saw some rainfall and hope for the crops facing the threat of a drought-like situation.
With another spell of drought seeming imminent in the State, rainfall up to 20 mm was observed in certain parts of Jharkhand on Tuesday. Resulting from low depression area formed in Bay of Bengal, these showers continued on Wednesday and are expected to go on for one more day.
“Within these 24 hours, starting from 8:30 am on Tuesday, the State saw average rainfall up to 12mm. Some 15 of our observatories in Huntergunj, Madhupur, Jamtara and other places recorded rainfall up to 10mm,” informed Ranchi IMD Forecast Officer U Shrivastava.
He said, “Although only 4.3mm rainfall was recorded in Ranchi, Jamshedpur saw 13mm rainfall. Maheshpur in Pakur district received 20mm of rainfall. We are expecting similar reports for today.”
These rains have not only lowered temperatures unusually high for this part of the year, but have also put the minds of farmers to ease, who were afraid of losing their crops to low rainfall.
“These rains have come when crops in fields were beginning to show signs of soil moisture scarcity. Even though not torrential, these mild showers will be greatly beneficial to the crops which were on the verge of failure with prolonged absence of rainfall,” stated Birsa Agricultural University Agro Met Advisor A Wadood.
He further added, “In upland and mid land areas of the state, farmers had sown paddy and maize. These crops had just begun to show signs of soil moisture scarcity but these showers were greatly beneficial to them as they recharged the water content in fields. We had asked farmers to practice light irrigation to save their crops if drought would have hit, but even that isn’t required anymore.”
And this will only get better, the water bodies near the fields have not dried out yet and more rainfall is to be expected, Wadood said.
But will the state see torrential downpour in near future, no, says the experts.
“The low depression zone in Bay of Bengal has weakened and is moving towards Odisha and away from Jharkhand. light showers can frequent the state for today but heavy rainfall is still not on cards. Heavy rainfall is not possible until a strong depression zone forms near Jharkhand and passes over it,” Wadood added.