HYDERABAD: Is Andhra Pradesh fighting a losing battle against Maharashtra in preventing the neighbouring State from constructing 11 barrages across the Godavari?
Overall flood situation in the State has improved a little today with the improvement in the weather condition. However, the water levels of the rivers are receding at a very slow rate, said sources in the Water Resources Department (WRD). The National Highway 31, which is under the floodwaters of the Puthimari river since Sunday last, is yet to be opened for vehicular traffic beyond the Puthimari Natun Bazar point.
The delay in the withdrawal of the monsoon is expected to benefit crops in the current kharif as well as in the ensuing rabi season. However, the projected increase in the intensity of rains in the north-eastern states may heighten the threat of floods in the Brahmaputra and other rivers, adversely affecting the standing crops.
Rehabilitation of agriculture in the vast tracts ravaged by the Kosi river in Bihar is anticipated to take a long time as farm operations cannot begin for at least a month after the flood waters clear out.
Surinder Sud / New Delhi August 22, 2008, 4:49 IST
Monsoon took a long break in July in the interior peninsula, Maharashtra and parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan, Yet, the overall distribution of rains till mid-August has been the best in the past five years.
MONSOON WATCH
Surinder Sud / New Delhi August 1, 2008, 22:15 IST
Monsoon is back in almost all the rain-starved areas of the peninsula, Maharashtra and parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. As a result, there has been a dramatic change in the overall kharif crop outlook.
Conditions are turning favourable for planting paddy, the main crop, as well as pulses, oilseeds and even cotton.
Surinder Sud / Mumbai July 4, 2008, 0:09 IST The early rains were expected to give some impetus to kharif sowing. But the initial momentum has been lost due to wavering government policies on agricultural commodities and the weakening monsoon. The pace of sowing has also reportedly been affected by other factors such as a shortage of migratory labour due to the employment guarantee programme, scarcity of phosphatic and potassic fertilisers in some pockets, and the problems faced by farmers in getting bank finance after the loan waiver move.
Considering the complexity of the problem and in order to compare the estimates, we have adopted a similar methodology for the estimation of water utilization as that of the NCA
The research account by Garg and Hassan on water scarcity in India is based on the tables and figures of the Central Water Commission (CWC), Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and National Commission on Agriculture (NCA) which were published during 1976
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today stressed the need for establishment of flood forecasting stations in coordination with organisations like the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Meteorology department to mitigate the losses due to flash floods.
