Was The Met Office Napping?

Hailstorms have once again damaged crops in the drought-prone Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra as well as the credibility of the India Meteorological Department.

- Nidhi Jamwal

FROM MARCH 14 to 16, 2017, heavy rainfall and hailstorm struck the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra, flattening the rabi (winter) crop over thousands of hectares (ha). While the state government is still assessing the losses, independent weather forecasters say that seven of the eight districts of Marathwada, and six of the 11 districts of Vidarbha were affected. These districts include drought-prone Beed, Latur, Osmanabad, Nanded, Parbhani, Yavatmal, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Buldhana, Akola and Washim. Wheat, sorghum, chickpea, grape and mango crops were hit.

“In Latur district alone, farmland in 71 villages has suffered crop losses. The worst affected talukas include Deoni, Udgir, Nilanga and Ausa,” says Sandipan Badgire, a farmer and social activist from Sonwati village in Latur. Anil Paulkar, bureau chief of Divya Marathi, a Marathi daily, adds that at least 40,000 ha of agricultural land in Latur lost all of its crop. What makes the farmers’ suffering worse is that no advisory or warning of the approaching hailstorm was issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). “The rabi crop was almost ready for harvest. Had there been a prior weather warning, some farmers, whose crops were ready, could have harvested and saved them,” says Badgire.

Caught unawares