The monsoon has strengthened in the last few days and rain/thundershowers are expected to occur at many places in the State in the next couple of days.
Moderate to rather heavy rain will occur at many places in all the districts of coastal, Malnad and south-interior Karnataka. Bangalore city and Bangalore Rural district will receive light showers to moderate rain during the next 48 hours, according to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), Bangalore.
Chitradurga, Davangere, parts of Tumkur and coastal and Malnad districts is expected to receive moderate to heavy rainfall in the next two to three days. Bangalore Urban can expect rain in the evening in the next couple of days while south-interior Karnataka is expected to receive varied wet spells, V.S. Prakash, director, KSNDMC, told The Hindu on Sunday.
Sowing in full speed
The widespread rain also speeded up farming operations in the districts. Sowing was completed on 48 lakh hectares in the State against the last year’s coverage of 60.47 lakh hectares as on August 21.
In the last 24 hours (Saturday 8.30 a.m. to Sunday 8.30 a.m.), all parts of the State received rain. Bangalore Urban (80 mm) and Rural (52.5 mm) districts received widespread rainfall. Districts such as Udupi (246mm), Dakshina Kannada (1,995.mm), Bellary (135.5 mm), Chitradurga (100.5 mm), Uttara Kannada (98.5 mm), Tumkur (83.5 mm), Davangere (71.5 mm) Kodagu (68.5mm), Shimoga (99.5 mm), also received widespread rain.
Rainfall data
Rainfall was fairly widespread in Gulbarga (66 mm), Mysore (51.5 mm), Raichur (63 mm), Ramanagaram (37mm), Kolar (48.5 mm), Chickballapur (54 mm), Mandya (66.5), and scattered rainfall was recorded in Yadgir (28.5 mm), and isolated to rather heavy rain in Chamarajanagar (51.5 mm) during the last 24 hours, according to the KSNDMC.
From June 1 to August 26, the State, as a whole, received 463.5 mm rainfall against the normal 655.3 mm (minus 29.1 per cent). Since June 1, south-interior Karnataka received 154.2 mm (-25.9 per cent), north-interior Karnataka - 229 mm (-30.9 per cent), Malnad – 884.4 mm (-30.6 per cent), coastal – 1939.8 mm (-27.8 per cent), said the KSNDMC sources. The government has declared 140 taluks as drought-hit.
Acreage target
An official in the Agriculture Department said recent spells would help farmers to take up sowing operations. Rainfall in the next few weeks would increase area under paddy, ragi, maize and oilseeds in the kharif 2012 season and the acreage under various crops would touch 65 lakh hectares, the official said.
The acreage target has been set at 74.5 lakh hectares in the State in the current kharif season.
Widespread rainfall would also address the problem of shortage of fodder in several parts of the State, the official said.
