Second spell to last only 3 days, Gujarat farmers to get brief respite

Ahmedabad

The farmers of Gujarat, who are looking desperately towards rain-gods for respite, will probably only have a brief relief owing to the downpour expected to take place in the state during next 72 hours.

The rain likely to be caused by the low pressure over the adjoining Madhya Pradesh will also not have a very even distribution through out the state.

Director in-charge of the Ahmedabad Met office, Ms Manorama Mohanty today said the rain in northern parts of the state would be 30 to 50 mm on an average. In some of the southern parts it would be in the category of heavy rain with around 70 mm. In next 24 hours southern and northern Gujarat would experience rain which would spread across Saurashtra on the next day i e July 22. The Kutch region of the state, which is the most dry area, would also have some downpour. But the rain would completely stop in three days and we will have to wait for another low pressure for any further downpour,’ she said.

Ms. Mohanty said, ‘ the entire state was alarmingly 48 percent rain deficient in monsoon rain so far and the situation in the northern part was even worse.’

Gujarat, which saw an early breakthrough of monsoon this year on June 13 two days ahead of the normal arrival time of June 15, is waiting for its second spell since June 25. The first spell of monsoon rained very heavily, especially in the Saurashtra region and caused large scale damage to the crops of groundnut and cotton.

For a real relief to the farmers now onwards, the downpour at regular intervals was needed, particularly in the northern region and Kutch where fields were looking parched with a looming spectre of drought.