North-east faces severe heat, drought

Guwahati: The otherwise flood-prone north-east region of India is reeling under a severe heat wave with scanty monsoon rains affecting agriculture, officials said on Tuesday.

"The rainfall pattern this monsoon in the north-east is rather scanty and it is mainly due to a disturbance in the orientation with the trough located south of its normal position and so there is more rains elsewhere in the country," said Dulal Chakraborty, deputy director general of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Guwahati.

Compared to the mean average monsoon rains, Assam has received about 30 per cent less rainfall this year.

"We are still in the middle of the monsoons and a clear picture would emerge only by August end. If the trough veers towards the north then the north-eastern region would get rains," Chakraborty said.

The worst hit by the drought like situation is Arunachal Pradesh - the average expected monsoon rainfall till July 31 was estimated about 107 cm, but the state has received just 55 cm recording a shortfall of about 49 per cent.

"Nagaland has received deficient rainfall estimating 49 per cent, followed by Manipur with 42 per cent, Meghalaya 39 per cent, and Tripura 11 per cent," the official said.

The only state that has received excess rainfall is Mizoram - the average monsoon rainfall being 72 cm with the state already receiving 84 cm.

The monsoon was scattered in Assam this year thereby sparing millions of people from the ravaging floods.

A wave of flooding that began June in some parts of Assam and Tripura killed 16 people and displaced more than half-a-million people.

"But compared to previous years, the floods this year were almost negligible," an Assam flood control department official said.

Every year, the monsoon causes the river to flood in Assam, a state of 26 million people.

In 2004, at least 200 people died and millions were displaced. Scanty rainfall, however, had its impact on agriculture in the north-east.

"Crops are already suffering in many parts of the region due to inadequate rains," an Assam agriculture department official said.