North-interior and parts of south-interior Karnataka are facing severe drought

The southwest monsoon, which started off in a torrent, has ended in a trickle in the State.

Sunday marked the official end of the monsoon season, according to the climatological classification adopted by India Meteorological Department (IMD). Though the monsoon may be active in Karnataka in the coming days, the picture so far is distressing for large parts of the State.

“If one were to go by climatological classifications, the monsoon has indeed come to an end as the period between June and September is considered monsoon months,” said C.P. Patil, director in charge of IMD, Bengaluru. “But, monsoon withdrawal has not happened, and monsoon conditions may end only in mid-October,” he said.

While according to IMD, the State has received normal rainfall overall, north-interior Karnataka and parts of south-interior Karnataka are facing severe drought (which is a deficiency worse than 30%). Recently, the State declared 86 taluks across 23 districts as drought-hit.

As many as 10 of the 11 districts in northern Karnataka are facing drought, with only Belagavi recording normal or excess rainfall. Yadgir district is seeing a staggering deficiency of 65%, while Raichur has also received 54% lesser rain.

Similarly, while south-interior Karnataka has received “normal” monsoon rainfall in three months, which has increased reservoir storage by 1.5 times as against last year, the situation is disconcerting in rain-fed districts of Tumakuru, Kolar, and Chikkaballapur. Here, monsoon deficiency is as much as 51%. Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre said that until last week, these three districts had seen sowing in 1.1 lakh hectares lesser than last year.

The area stretching from Ballari to Tumakuru is seeing severe moisture inadequacy, which is threatening the productive of even standing crops, shows the KSNDMC data.

Officials said the monsoon has started withdrawing only in Rajasthan and may take a couple of more weeks to withdraw entirely from Karnataka. For the next few days, rain is expected to be active only in coastal Karnataka while isolated areas elsewhere may see heavy rain.