Breaking a long dry spell, heavy rains during the past two days in Uttarakhand have ignited new hopes of recharging ground water as well as filling reservoirs.
India Meteorological Department (Met) Director Anand Sharma told Business Standard that nearly 250 mm of rain had been recorded in the state during the last two days alone.
Pantnagar, Pithoragarh, Mukteshwar and some other areas in Kumaon region have received 100-150 mm of rains during the past 24 hours, Sharma said.
Agriculture experts said the fresh rainfall was likely to help in ground water recharging as well as filling dry reservoirs. But the rains came only after a long dry spell that had already hit the rabi crops hard during the winter.
According to the state agriculture department, nearly 20-25 per cent of the yield has been affected by scanty rainfall in April, June and July this year.
On an average, there was 35 per cent less rainfall during the past three to four months that certainly did not auger well for kharif crops like paddy and mandua (finger millets), which are the main crops of the hill state.
The kharif season in the hills usually begins in the month of April itself while it starts in June-July in the plains, experts said.
Nevertheless, the state managed to carry out sowing on 571,000 hectares against a target of 575,000 hectares this season.
The 4,000 hectares of shortfall was mainly owing to scanty rainfall, the agriculture department officials said.
The long dry spell during the last winter had badly affected cultivation of wheat and other crops in the hilly region with Tehri, Almora and Pithoragarh districts bearing the maximum brunt.
The state government had already sent a memorandum to the Centre with a demand of Rs 200.14 crore as relief package.
State Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said the scanty rainfall had not only affected agricultural and horticultural crops but had also dried up natural water sources.
Though 11 districts are facing drought-like conditions, 50 per cent of the winter crops have been damaged in 3,216 villages of five districts alone.
