Telangana In Grip of Drought Creep, Hyderabad Among 3 Fully Deficient Districts

Hyderabad:All 16 mandals in the city are now in the rain deficient category for the year as on Friday, compared to 13 that were deficient and three which were in the normal rainfall category when the southwest monsoon season officially ended on September 30.

Joining Hyderabad district in the fully deficient district category are Hanamkonda, and Narayanpet, both which had some of their mandals in the normal category but the continued deficiencies pushed them into fully deficient districts category.

With predictions of continued rainfall deficiencies during the ongoing northeast monsoon season coming true, these are adding to the drought woes already piled on Telangana by the southwest monsoon season, at the end of which the state recorded a 17 per cent overall deficit. The annual deficit this year now stands at 24 per cent for Telangana.

Even as the government is gearing up to combat drought and its impacts, it is becoming clear that the strong El Nino over the Pacific Ocean, which is expected to become strengthen by December, will further emaciate the state. As on Friday, the number of mandals in the large deficient category rose to 11 from five on September 30, while the number of mandals in the deficient category increased to 382 from 306 according to rainfall data from the Telangana Planning and Development Society.

While at the end of the southwest monsoon season Telangana had 19 districts which had more mandals in the deficient category than in the normal rainfall category, this number has risen to 20 now, while districts with all their mandals in the deficient category increased from 0 to 3 in the same period.

Spreading tentacles of drought

Rain deficient districts: Hyderabad, Hanamkonda, Narayanpet

Unit -Sept. 30 Oct. 23

‘Normal’ districts- -15 -11

Deficient rainfall: - 18 -22

All normal rainfall districts on Oct. 23 have cumulative rain in negative values

Deficient mandals: -306 -382

Large deficient mandals: -5 -11

How rainfall is categorised

Large Excess - +60% and above

Excess - +20% to +59%

Normal - +19% to -19%

Deficient - -20% to - -59%

Large deficient - -60% to -99%