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With the North-East monsoon being 19 per cent deficient up to now, South India has been left with a water storage level that is lowest in a decade.
According to the Central Water Commission, the storage level in 16 of the 30 major reservoirs is lower than 40 per cent of capacity.
The overall storage level in the 82 major reservoirs of the country is also lower than last year. Against a full reservoir level of 154.421 billion cubic metres (bmc), the storage as on December 20 was 93.282 bmc or 60 per cent of the capacity. During the same time last year, the level was 66 per cent.
The situation has turned grim as the North-East monsoon has not brought enough rain. Of the 36 meteorological sub-divisions in the country, not even one has received excess rainfall, while 23 divisions have received scanty rainfall. The monsoon has been deficient in over six divisions.
Deficient rainfall and lower storage levels are likely to affect soil moisture and irrigation which, in turn, may affect production of paddy, coarse cereals and pulses during the current rabi season. Area under these crops has been low up to December 21.
This will mean a setback to food production as, in the last couple of years, the rabi season has been making up for losses during the kharif season. This year, too, rabi paddy was expected to help make up the lower kharif paddy output (85.59 million tonnes vs 91.53 million tonnes).
Key paddy-growing States, such as Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, are facing problems of deficient rainfall and poor storage level.
It has been a double whammy for Andhra Pradesh as Cyclone Nilam in November affected over a lakh hectares under paddy. Sowing in the State has been lower by over a lakh hectares.
Area under paddy
According to the Agriculture Ministry, area under paddy is down at 1.71 lakh hectares against 2.78 lakh hectares during the same period a year ago.
The storage situation in Tamil Nadu is precarious, with the level being 77 per cent below normal. According to data, the level in the six major reservoirs of the State is lower than 50 per cent of the capacity.
This situation has never been witnessed in the region in the past decade. The storage level at Mettur and Lower Bhavani, which provide water for the crucial rabi paddy (Sambha and Navarai), is scanty, at 12 per cent and 11 per cent of capacity, respectively. Nearly four million tonnes of the 5.2 million tonnes rice that Tamil Nadu produces come from Sambha and Navarai.
In Andhra Pradesh, which contributes five million tonnes to rabi rice production, the storage level is higher only in the Srisailam reservoir compared with last year.
In Karnataka, the water level in Krishnaraja Sagar is 16 per cent of normal, while in Kabini, a tributary of the Cauvery, the storage is zero.
In Kerala, which has been declared drought-hit, the level in all the six reservoirs is below 60 per cent.
>subramani.mancombu@thehindu.co.in
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