Jaipur: Weather is once again playing with the desert state of Rajasthan as six of its districts are facing a drought-like situation. For more than 10 days, there has been no rainfall activity in the western areas of the state. The average rainfall is deficient up to 58 per cent in these districts. What is interesting is that 4 districts have received almost double their average rainfall during the same time and there was a flood-like situation in these districts.
An uneven rainfall is a common phenomenon in Rajasthan as the western districts comprised of desert areas receive lesser rain than the eastern and southeastern districts but this time the gap is extreme. The western districts like Jodhpur, Barmer, Bikaner, Jalor, and Sirohi and a northern district Ganganagar have received an average rainfall of only 42-55 per cent in this monsoon season till today. The monsoon stays in Rajasthan till September 15-20th so now only around one month left and if situations remain like this then this area will face drought this year considering that there are no rivers and only 5 per cent of water is left in the 123 reservoirs of the area.
CM Ashok Gehlot is concerned about the deficient rainfall in the area and ordered a special survey of the crop loss in these districts.
Although the Met Office is hopeful of the revival of monsoon activity in the state in the next 4-5 days but still the prediction of good rain is for eastern districts only. Radheshyam Sharm, the director of Meteorological centre Jaipur said that the low-pressure area extends up to the western part of the state but this time conditions were not favourable so the western part remained dry and the same situation is likely to continue in the next spell.
It is to note that Rajasthan has received more than average rainfall till August 15th but that is due to the abnormal rainfall in four districts namely Baran, Bundi, Kota, and Sawai Madhopur. These districts have received 55-98 per cent more rain then to their average rainfall. There was a flood-like situation in these districts about a week ago.
