Sudden drop in temperature worries farmers

Minimum temperature recorded at Botanical Garden on Thursday morning was 8 degrees Celsius

Even as people particularly members of the farming community in this hill station and its surroundings are still struggling to cope with the impact of the unusually dry South West Monsoon this year, they received a jolt on Thursday with many parts of the town experiencing shivering weather early in the morning.

While some of the low-level areas reportedly received light hoar, many open places including the Breeks Open Air Stadium and the Government Botanical Garden were covered with heavy dew.

Assistant Director of Horticulture V.Ramsundar told

The Hindu that the nippy conditions were abnormal for this part of the year.

He attributed it to the erratic rainfall during the monsoon.

The minimum temperature recorded at the Garden on Thursday morning was 8 degrees Celsius.

Pointing out that if the dew gives way to frost appropriate measures would be taken to protect the carpet beds in the garden, he said that since the second season had been well into its second half the necessity of protecting the flowers did not arise.

If the unusual weather continued, tea growers should go in for sprinkler irrigation.

Meanwhile, the farmers expressed the hope that the weather, which had let them down in the monsoon, would not play spoilsport again.