Haryana faces 6th drought in 11 years, Punjab 5th

As monsoon begins to withdraw from northwest India, the grain bowl states of Punjab and Haryana head for yet another drought — the fifth and sixth, respectively, in the past 11 years.

In what appears to be an alarming trend of the southwest monsoon in the past two decades, the two states have consistently received below normal monsoon rainfall since 1998.

Out of 17 years since 1998, Haryana has received at least 10% below normal monsoon rains in 12 years. The corresponding figure for Punjab is 11 of out 17 years, counting the present year as deficient.

Punjab currently has a monsoon shortfall of 36% and Haryana 34%. These deficits are likely to grow through September as little rain is expected after the monsoon withdraws from the region.

This year’s deficit follows last year’s drought, when the two states received just around 50% of normal monsoon rainfall.

“The poor rainfall in the two states appears to be one of the features of the current low-monsoon epoch that began in the 1980s,” said D Sivananda Pai, the lead monsoon forecaster at IMD.

This monsoon, nine out of the 20 districts of Punjab have seen rainfall below 30% of normal. In Haryana, 10 out of 21 districts are in a similar situation. The two key agricultural states are the highest contributors of foodgrain to the national buffer stock.

While weak rainfall has put farmers under strain, it has not impacted the sowing of key kharif crops like paddy, basmati, cotton, maize and bajra. Barring cotton, which has been attacked by whitefly pest, other crops have not reported any major disease or pest incidence. In Haryana, area under cotton is 5.80 lakh hectares and in Punjab it is 4.50 lakh hectares this season.

The low impact of rains on agriculture is principally because farmers have been drawing more and more groundwater for irrigating their fields. In Punjab, farmers operate an estimated 14 lakh tubewells and the state overexploits its groundwater by 45% each year. According to the Central Groundwater Board, underground water in Punjab is overexploited in 103 out of the 138 blocks.

The story is similar in Haryana, which overdraws its groundwater by 9%. More than half — 55 out of 108 — blocks in the state are overexploited, according to CGWB.

A NASA study in 2009 had said if Punjab and Haryana continued to overexploit groundwater, it could lead to the collapse of agriculture in that region.