Drought scare in half of India

Lakes dry up, groundwater depletes: Drought scare in half of India

• According to India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) latest data, more than half of India is reeling from drought-like conditions.
• Millions are struggling for drinking water as lakes dried up and groundwater levels depleted amid a sluggish monsoon that has impacted the sowing of key summer crops over the past two weeks.
• The monsoon was 39% deficient till June 22 despite marginal improvement over the last week.
• Most districts in east, central and peninsular India are facing “extremely dry” conditions, as per the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) that shows the observed rainfall amount compared with the rainfall climatology at a certain place over a long-term reference period. (The index is released by IMD Pune’s Climate Application and User Interface team).
• The index reflects long-term trends and water storage conditions in different parts of the country. Scanty pre-monsoon rains and delayed monsoon onset together created conditions for drought.
• Nearly 51% of the country’s total geographical area has received deficient rainfall so far, delaying planting of crops.
• Reservoirs in Telangana were 36% below normal; Andhra Pradesh at 83%; Karnataka at 23%; Tamil Nadu at 43% and Kerala at 38%. (Normal storage means average storage of the past 10 years).

Details:
• Chennai is one of several cities that is facing intense water shortage across the country.
• Tamil Nadu’s three reservoirs at Poondi, Cholavaram and Chembarambakkam, which supply water to the state’s capital, have depleted dramatically, forcing IT companies to redraw their operational plans and pushing eateries
to stop serving lunch. Several water bodies, including the Chembarambakkam lake and the Puzhal reservoir, have shrunk due to water stress.
• Some river basins are also extremely dry. The Tapi basin, for example, is 81% below the 10-year average storage; Sabarmati at 42%; Krishna at 55%; Cauvery basin at 45% and Ganga basin at 9.25% below the levels.

Criticality of monsoon
• The monsoon is critical for agriculture, which employs nearly half of India’s population, since 60% of the country’s net sown area doesn’t have irrigation. Rural incomes are a key driver of overall demand in the economy.
• Farmers have been able to sow 9.06 million hectares so far, down 12% from last year’s 10.3 million hectares sown in the corresponding period.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Russia Launches Spektr-RG

Context :  Spektr-RG  is a Russian–German high-energy astrophysics space observatory launched recently. It follows on from the Spektr-R satellite telescope launched in 2011.   About Spektr- RG: The  Spektrum-Röntgen-Gamma mission , also known as  Spektr-RG , is a joint  project between the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, and the German space agency, DLR .  Position : Spektr-RG will be placed in a stable orbit in space called  a Lagrange point (specifically, L2) , where the gravitational forces of two large objects — in this case, the sun and the Earth — balance each other out. This location will allow Spektr-RG to perform its observations while using a minimal amount of fuel. Objectives : The spacecraft is expected to detect 100,000 galaxy clusters, 3 million supermassive black holes, tens of thousands of star-forming galaxies, the presence of plasma (superheated gas) and many more types of obje...
Read more

Pink coaches introduced for women by the Northeast Frontier Railway zone

Image
30 July 2019 Current Affairs:  Indian Railways Northeast Frontier Railway zone  started an initiative to bring a special portion of the SLR coach with pink colour.  It is mainly introduced in order to bring women passengers with better safety and security. This special colour will help the  women passenger  to easily  identify the coach  in rush hours. Around eight trains in Rangiya division of the Northeast Frontier Railway has begun operations with some pink coaches. The section 58 of the Railways Act, 1989 provides for earmarking of accommodation for female passengers in trains.  Indian Railways planned to provide second class accommodation for women in the second Class-cum-Luggage-cum Guard’s Coach (SLR) . SLR coaches with especially Pink colored portion for lady passengers were placed into operation by the Rangiya Division of NFR in passenger trains bearing number 55817 / 55818, 55803 / 55804 and 55809 / 55810  They are operated bet...
Read more

Union Budget 2019-20: Bucks for the banks

CONTEXT The maiden budget of Nirmala Sitharaman has many interesting features, but it does not have a defining central theme. There were expectations of a big growth push through either tax cuts or large expenditure programmes even if it meant a rise in the fiscal deficit. But the Finance Minister has chosen to be fiscally conservative, opting to play the long-term game, though it could lead to pain in the short term. Infusion in the banking sector The only indulgence she has permitted herself is a big ₹70,000 crore capital infusion in banks that will, it is hoped, spur lending to growth sectors in the economy. Also, quite notably, the budget has sought to address the problems that have plagued the non-banking finance companies space over the last few months and the consequent credit freeze and loss of confidence in the market. Ms. Sitharaman has comprehensively addressed the important issues of liquidity, solvency and poor governance in the NBFC sector. She has made availa...
Read more