This year’s rainfall has been below average and 2014 qualifies as a meteorological drought year, private weather analysis firm SkyMet announced here on Wednesday, though the government appears to be in denial.
SkyMet CEO Jatin Singh said this year’s South-West monsoon was 12 per cent below the 130-year average of 89 centimetres. The firm had predicted a 60 per cent probability of a drought in July.
“This is the fourth drought since 2000, the last being in 2009. Total kharif production has fallen by 6.9 per cent and the acreage by 2.4 per cent. This is in line with the trend as this was an El Nino [heating of the Pacific Ocean] year and 71 per cent of droughts since 1951 have occurred during these years,” Mr. Singh told reporters here.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD), which is yet to release this year’s monsoon report, however, refused to term it drought. The department’s broad definition of an all-India meteorological drought is a national rainfall deficit of more than 10 per cent from June 1 to September 30, with more than a fifth of Indian territory affected.
IMD Director-General L.S. Rathore told The Hindu, “Drought is a controversial subject. There is no uniform definition and we do not declare them, the States do it in consultation with the Agriculture Ministry.”
