Rain may play spoilsport this Navratri owing to non-withdrawal of monsoon as of now

Ahmedabad: Rain, which had played a big spoilsport during Navratri last year and almost completely washed it, might do some ‘villainous’ act during this most sought-after festival in Gujarat this time around.

Met department has not ruled out the possibility of some spells of moderate rains during the Navratri which starts tomorrow owing to the fact that the monsoon which has caused over 110% rain in Gujarat so far has not completely withdrawn yet. However there is some good-news for the Garba organizers in the state who were keeping their fingers crossed about the mood of rain-gods. Apart from South Gujarat, the likelihood of rain interfering with the festival was much less as per the forecast so far.

Met Director Jayanta Sarkar today said that though heavy rainfall warning for parts of South Gujarat has been issued for today only and as of now there was no further warning for the coming four day yet owing to non-withdrawal of monsoon (despite passing of normal period of September 15) so far the general light to moderate rain forecast has been issued for the next four days.

‘The heavy rain in South Gujarat was owing to a low pressure system over central Maharashtra and Southern Gujarat. Though for the first four days of Navratri we have not issued any heavy rainfall warning so far yet owing to presence of monsoon, some spells or moderate to light rain can’t be ruled out,’ he said.

Notably last year Navratri was of 10 days (Oct 1 to 10) instead of usual nine owing to the first tithi (Pratipada) being on two days and rain had occurred on most of the days causing large-scale loss to Garba organizers and ‘throwing water’ on the festive mood. Met department had held La Nina effect responsible for it saying that as 2016 was a La Nina year, the rain happened late.

This year Navratri is of usual nine days (Sep 21 to 29). Thousands of Garba mandalis across the state including the main cities of Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat have finalized the preparations for the nine day event. At some places including Surat Air conditioned domes have been erected to counter the possibility or rain.

The main official event Vibrant Gujarat Navratri Mahotsav will be held in the GMDC ground in Ahemdabad. CM Vijay Rupani will inaugurate it. This event was also badly affected owing to rain last year.

DeshGujarat