Drought, floods swap places in W-N

In stark contrast to western states, the N-E reels under a severe heat wave.

Blame it on the weather gods or global warming. Gujarat, an otherwise drought-prone state in western India, was battling floods on Tuesday, while the northeast, usually battered by heavy rainfalls during this time of the year, was facing drought-like conditions.

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Following heavy rains since Saturday that have taken the season's toll of rain-related deaths to 50, Gujarat called in army and paramilitary forces to help civil authorities in their rescue and relief operations.

One column of the army and one Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) platoon was deployed in the central Gujarat district of Kheda on Tuesday.

"Although water levels are receding and there is no danger from the overflowing rivers in Matar and Sojitra regions in Kheda district, we did not want to take chances as there is a forecast of heavy rains," Kheda district administrator RR Varsani said.

Incessant heavy rains in parts of central and south Gujarat and Saurashtra had forced authorities to evacuate more than 25,000 people.

While rains took a breather in some parts on Tuesday, authorities said the flood situation in central and south Gujarat remained worrisome.

Following heavy rains, alert was sounded at 59 reservoirs, including high alert at 11 dams, that were overflowing.

The intra-state road traffic remained heavily affected with Gujarat's transport corporation withdrawing some 9,600 buses from several routes, including 20 major routes.

The Indian Air Force has also put three choppers on a standby at the Ahmedabad and Vadodara airports to meet any emergency.

In neighbouring Maharashtra, the flood situation in western parts of the state worsened on Tuesday as the Krishna river breached the danger levels and water was being released from the Koyna dam.

The water level in the Krishna has risen to 51 feet, six feet above the danger mark.

Over 20,000 people were marooned in Shirgaon, Navakher, Bhuleshwar, Wadi, Kanegaon and other villages, cut off by floodwaters.

The floods destroyed homes, devastated crops and forced thousands to scramble for cover in makeshift shelters.

Twelve people have died in the flood-ravaged Sangli district and the situation turned for the worse after water was released from the Koyna dam.

Many parts of Kolhapur and Satara remained flooded but conditions in Pune and Nashik have improved significantly.

In stark contrast to the scenario in the two western states, the northeast region of India—otherwise prone to floods—was reeling under a severe heat wave with scanty monsoon rains affecting agriculture.

"The rainfall pattern this monsoon in the northeast is rather scanty, mainly due to a disturbance in the orientation with the trough located south of its normal position," said Dulal Chakraborty, deputy director general of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Guwahati.

Compared to the mean average monsoon rains, Assam has received about 30 per cent less rainfall this year.

"We are still in the middle of the monsoons and a clear picture would emerge only by August-end. If the trough veers towards the north then the northeastern region would get rains," Chakraborty told.

The worst hit by the drought-like situation is Arunachal Pradesh—the average expected monsoon rainfall till July 31 was estimated about 107 cms, but the state has received just 55 cms, recording a shortfall of about 49 per cent.

"Nagaland has received deficient rainfall, estimated at 49 per cent, followed by Manipur with 42 per cent, Meghalaya 39 per cent, and Tripura 11 per cent," the official said.

The only state that has received excess rainfall is Mizoram—the average monsoon rainfall being 72 cms with the state already receiving 84 cms.

The monsoon was scattered in Assam this year, thereby sparing millions of people from the ravaging floods.

A wave of flooding that began in June in some parts of Assam and Tripura killed 16 people and displaced more than half-a-million people.

"But compared to previous years, the floods this year were almost negligible," an Assam flood control department official said.