Thiruvananthapuram: For those who are in love with the rain and like to get drenched against the backdrop of stunning greenery, an ideal location would be Kerala in June and July. Not this year, though.
Monsoons normally hit the Kerala coast on the first day of June, the day that schools traditionally open for a new academic year, and continue for over two months.
This year, it arrived over a week late, making its much-awaited appearance only on June 8, and has more or less disappeared since. Temperatures are anywhere between 32 and 35 degrees Celsius by noon and despite dark clouds hovering above, they have not released any torrents.
According to the meteorological department, the state received only 35.5cm of rain this June, compared to the long-term average of nearly 55cm, or a deficit as big as over 33 per cent.
The situation has led to worries all around including for farmers, the government and the tourism sector, not to mention households that are hoping that their wells will get filled during the rest of what remains of the monsoon season.
The Kerala State Electricity Board has warned that there is only 11 per cent water remaining in the major reservoirs and that if the rain shortage continues, it will have to resort to power cuts, something unthinkable during a normal year in a monsoon month.
Farmers who have been hit hard by declining commodity prices are now facing another crisis as water shortage hits their standing crops. Rubber planters were recently enthused by prices inching up and therefore invested in rain-guarding for their trees for tapping them during monsoon months, but now find that all the expense incurred seems to have been unnecessary.
The tourism sector, which gets a boost during monsoon months when rain lovers descend on the state, is also disappointed. Tomy Pulickattil, managing director of leading houseboat operators Pulickattil Houseboats, said: “Monsoon tourism has been more or less wiped out this year. The houseboat sector did well during the summer vacations and we were expecting the monsoons to keep up the momentum. But that has not happened.”
The rain deficiency in Kerala, however, diminishes in the intensity of pain inflicted on the common man compared to the water shortage in neighbouring Tamil Nadu state, particularly its capital city, Chennai. But that is no consolation for Kerala which is battling its own monsoon deficiency.
