Widespread monsoon rains in the southern peninsula in the last few days have wiped out the rain deficit witnessed by the southern states since the start of the season. The aggregate rainfall in the five southern states – Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana – stood 9% above the relevant long period average (LPA) on Thursday, as against a deficit of 8% a week ago.
According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), overall monsoon rains were “above normal” being 7% above the benchmark till Thursday.
The widespread rains overt the last few days also helped reduce the deficit in water levels in India’s key reservoirs to 15% below the last year’s record level on Thursday from a deficiency of 26% that prevailed a week ago.
Water levels at the 40 reservoirs in southern regions, however, were still 36% below the last year’s level; it was 45% below the year ago period last week.
According to the Central Water Commission (CWC), the water level of the country’s 146 reservoirs stood at 85..93 billion cubic meters (bcm) on Thursday, which is 48% of their combined capacity. A week back, water level was at 39% of their combined capacity.
A year ago, the water available in these reservoirs was 101.57 bcm, and the average of the last 10 years was 77.54 bcm. “Current water level of reservoirs was 85% of the live storage of the corresponding period of last year and 111% of storage of the average of the last 10 years,” the CWC stated.
“The numbers of reservoirs having storage more than last year are 58 and reservoirs having storage more than average in the last ten years are 75,” according to a CWC note.
Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, Nagaland , Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh have better water storage than last year.
Water levels in major dams in eastern regions especially in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, have been up 1% above last year’s level however 10% less that last 10 year-average level. In these states, a large segment of the crop area is still rainfed.
Because of surplus rainfall in north-western states, 10 reservoirs of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan have 36% more rainfall than last year and 30% above the average of last decade.
After being deficient since last month, rainfall in the southern peninsula is 9% above LPA so far.
Northwest and central India regions have received 36% and 14% more rainfall than benchmark.
On July 1, the deficiency in overall rainfall in the country was 9% of benchmark. Rainfall between 96-104% of the LPA is considered “normal”.
This comes after India, as a whole, received “below normal” rainfall of 148.6 millimetre (mm) in June, against the LPA of 165.3 mm, a deficit of 10%.