Monsoon nightmare hits agriculture, power

Poor rainfall during the ongoing monsoon has caused 84 major water reservoirs across the country — used for irrigation and hydel power generation — to witness the worst shortfall over the last decade. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jul 22, 2012, 02:49:16 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Poor rainfall during the ongoing monsoon has caused 84 major water reservoirs across the country — used for irrigation and hydel power generation — to witness the worst shortfall over the last decade.

The Central Water Commission (CWC), which monitors these reservoirs, reported 26% less water when compared to the average level over the last 10 years. "The shortfall in these reservoirs has increased by around 4% in a week," the National Rain-fed Area Authority told the Planning Commission on Friday.

As many as 71 of the 84 water reservoirs reported water levels of 40% or less, raising fears relating to hydel power generation as well as agriculture. While 37 reservoirs reported a substantial fall in electricity generation, the average area under cultivation for kharif crops had fallen from 1,057 lakh hectares to 428 lakh hectares due to lack of irrigation, the authority's report said.

After a meeting with officials of six states on Saturday, agriculture secretary Ashish Bahuguna stuck a positive note by contending that the overall rainfall deficiency had come down to 22% from 30% in June. "However, there are pockets of concern where rainfall is still deficient, and the situation is still a cause of concern," he said.

Based on the CWC report, the authority described the situation in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat – where the water level had fallen by more than 50% - as grave.

"The farmers and service providers should put in place some plans for compensatory production to make up for losses, if any," the authority said. "In case the deficiency persists, one has to plan sowing of short-duration pulses, oil seeds and fodder."

Weak monsoon worries Centre

The Centre on Saturday held a meeting with representatives of six states – Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana – to review the situation arising from a weak monsoon, which continues to be a significant 22% below normal.

Agriculture secretary Ashish Bahuguna said the situation in four states – Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan – was worrisome.Monsoon nightmare hits agriculture, power

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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