Punjab, Haryana again receive scanty rains this year

Chandigarh: Punjab and Haryana, the grain bowl states of the country, received scanty monsoon rains this year for the second consecutive year, with deficit standing at 25 per cent each between June and September.

Chandigarh, the common capital of the two states, also received poor rains this year, with a deficit of 46 per cent, an official of the Chandigarh's Meteorological Department told PTI here today.

Between June 1 and September 20 period this year, Union Territory Chandigarh had received a rainfall of 428.6 mm as against normal of 794.7 mm, leaving a deficit of 46 per cent.

Last year, Chandigarh had received 35 per cent less rains than normal while the deficit during the same period for Punjab and Haryana stood at 31 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively.

In the said period this year, Punjab had received a rainfall of 346.3 mm as against normal of 461.5 mm, leaving a deficit of 25 per cent, the MeT official said.

Likewise, Haryana received 331.7 mm of rains against normal of 441 mm, leaving a defecit of 25 per cent, he said.

Among the worst affected district of Punjab which received poor rains included Ferozepur, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Ludhiana while comparatively the districts which had good rains included Faridkot, Gurdaspur, Ropar and Bathinda.

Similarly in Haryana, several northern districts received poor rains including Ambala, Kurukshetra and Panchkula.

Panipat, Rohtak and Sonipat also received scanty rains while the districts which lie closer to Delhi including Gurgaon, Faridabad and Jhajjar comparatively had good rainfall between June 1 and September 20 period.

In Punjab, Ferozepur had 104.5 mm as against normal of 332.2 mm, leaving a deficit of 69 per cent, Patiala had 240.7 mm as against 571.7 mm, with deficit of 58 per cent, Fatehgarh Sahib had 250.3 mm as against 505.3 mm, leaving a deficit of 50 per cent.

Hoshiarpur had 376.2 mm of rains as against normal of 674.6 mm, leaving a deficit of 44 per cent, Jalandhar had 293.8 mm as against normal of 516.8 mm, with deficit of 43 per cent, Ludhiana had 291.2 mm of rain as against 499.7 mm, with deficit of 42 per cent, Mansa had 173.6 mm as against 310.3 mm, with deficiency of 44 per cent.

Bathinda had 286 mm of rain as against normal of 300.9 mm, with deficit of 5 per cent.
Amritsar received 450.3 mm of rains as against normal of 507.6 mm, leaving a deficit of 11 per cent.