Incessant rain lashed parts of northern India, forcing the closure of schools in several cities as an unusually late period of rain extended the disaster across the country, killing at least 18 people in the past 24 hours. The state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday that heavy rainfall is expected in the northern states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan till Tuesday.
The rainy season usually comes to an end in northwest India from mid-September and is expected to end by mid-October across the country. Some environmentalists believe that climate change is behind the unusually wet weather. Parts of northwestern India saw 1,293 percent more rain than normal on Sunday, with Uttar Pradesh receiving up to 22.5 mm, the IMD said.
Eighteen people were killed in various accidents attributed to the rain in the last 24 hours in the state, including drownings and electrocutions, authorities said. Three people were killed when a building collapsed in the capital New Delhi as heavy rain drenched the city on Sunday. It was not immediately clear whether rain caused the collapse. One of the benefits of rain is cleaner air. Delhi’s air improved significantly due to weekend downpours with a quality index of 36, in the “good” category, early Monday, according to the US Embassy’s air pollution monitor.
Crops damaged before harvest
Heavy rainfall also damaged key summer crops such as rice, soybeans, cotton, pulses and vegetables just before harvest, which could increase food inflation in Asia’s third-largest economy, farmers, traders and industry officials said. Higher food prices could prompt New Delhi to further curb exports of food commodities such as rice, wheat and sugar, potentially forcing India’s central bank to raise key interest rates again.
“There has been so much rainfall in the last week that we can now see sprouts from the paddy seeds,” said Narendra Shukla, a 36-year-old farmer from Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh. The entire rice crop that could have been harvested in two weeks has been flattened and Shukla is now waiting for the weather to clear to complete the task and plant the potatoes.
Uttar Pradesh, the country’s second largest rice producer, received 500 percent more rainfall than normal in October. Crop damage could lead to reduced yields and poor harvest quality as crops were ready for harvesting and in some places already harvested crops were drying up, said Harish Galipelli, director of ILA Commodities India Pvt Ltd, which deals in agricultural commodities.
Indian farmers usually plant summer-sown crops in June-July with the arrival of the monsoon rains, with harvest starting from mid-September. But this year, the cycle was delayed by lower rainfall in June and while the crop is now ready for harvest, a low pressure area is bringing heavy rainfall to the north-west and east of the country, delaying the end of the south-west monsoon.
Northern and eastern regions are expected to receive heavy rainfall in the first half of this week, while southern India could experience above average rainfall in the second half, a senior IMD official said. Crop damage is likely to push already rising food prices higher, said a trader with a Mumbai-based global trading firm. “The government and the RBI are under pressure to reduce inflation. A downward revision in crop production figures means more and longer export restrictions,” the dealer said.
The RBI has already raised its benchmark repo rate by 190 basis points this year. Neighboring Pakistan has also been hit by unprecedented flooding, with the government blaming climate change for unusually heavy rains and accelerating the melting of Himalayan glaciers. Heavy rain over the past five days has triggered landslides and flash floods across Nepal, stranding dozens of foreign tourists and climbers in several places, authorities there said. October is usually the start of the clear, dry tourist season in Nepal.
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