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Robust Indian monsoon brings misery but hopes of rich crops
New Delhi (AFP) Jul 31, 2006 India on Monday predicted that bountiful monsoon rains would yield bumper crops, even as downpours tormented thousands and flooded large swathes of the country's two wealthiest states. The western state of Maharashtra evacuated nearly 65,000 people hit by floods from 35 villages in the southern Sangli district, the United News of India reported. At least four villages in Sangli were cut off while rescuers using rowboats overnight evacuated another 2,500 marooned people from the inundated central Satara district, it said. In adjoining Gujarat state, torrential rains had killed 15 people since Friday and fractured road and rail networks, the Press Trust of India said. Provincial rescuers backed by paramilitary troopers evacuated 30,000 people from inundated Gujarati towns and villages overnight as meteorologists warned the torrent would not let up until Tuesday. The latest deaths take to nearly 50 the number of people killed in rain-related accidents in Gujarat since June when the monsoon slammed into India's western coast. The national monsoon toll has exceeded 300 according to one official count. State authorities warned that a total of 38 brimming reservoirs, including Gujarat's two largest dams in the districts of Bhavnagar and Rajkot, were overflowing and endangering nearby populations. The national policy-making Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), however, said the floods were unlikely to affect an anticipated bumper harvest as a result of the rains now covering all of agriculture-dependent India. "Such floods are not uncommon at this time of the year in Gujarat and Mahrashtra and the rains are not expected to come in the way of our anticipation of a good khariff (monsoon) crop," IARI's principal scientist N. V. K. Chakravarty told AFP. Cotton, rice, jute, coarse cereals, sugar cane and pulses are the main crops planted during the monsoon. According to the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, rainfall during the peak monsoon season between June 1 and July 19 was normal in 23 of India's 36 meteorological zones, in excess in one and patchy in 12. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters When the Earth Quakes A world of storm and tempest
Thirty feared dead in Pakistan flash floods
Islamabad (AFP) Jul 29, 2006 At least 30 people were feared dead after flash floods swept them away overnight in northern Pakistan, an official said Saturday. |
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