Sudden rainfall, hailstorm affect crops in east Rajasthan

JAIPUR/ALWAR: Mild to moderate showers accompanied by hailstorm on Sunday noon made farmers, especially in eastern Rajasthan, jittery.
With the harvest of crops, including wheat, mustard and barley, almost a fortnight away, this spell of unprecedented rainfall and hailstorm affected the crops. Chief minister Vasundhara Raje too has ordered for an early ‘girdawari’ (crop assessment).

Expressing her concern, Raje asked officials to start an early survey of crops. She asked officials of the relief management and district collectors to complete the survey to enable the government to take further action in this matter.

The showers and hailstorm mostly hit farmers in Jaipur, Alwar, Sawai Madhopur and Jhunjhunu district of the state. Since crops such as wheat, barley and mustard are sown by farmers in large tracts of land, they became jittery with the sudden rainfall.

In some places in Alwar district, including Neemrana, farmers have already started harvesting the crops. “The rainfall and hailstorm has affected our harvested mustard crop which is lying in the open fields,” said Ramratan Jatav, a native of Jonayapa Kurd in Alwar.

It may be recalled that similar spells of unprecedented rainfall had affected farmers in southern Rajasthan, including Kota, Bundi, Jhalwar and Barmer, in 2016 and 2017. It was followed by suicides by farmers in these districts.

Villages such as Dhodh, Dataramgarh, Srimadhopur, Ajitgarh, Zorawarnagar, Ranoli and Palsana witnessed minor hailstorms along with dust storms, affecting yet to be harvested wheat and barley crops. Farmers in Rajasthan are already protesting against the discrepancies in the loan waiver formula put forward by the state government.

Cloudy conditions continued at Jaipur, Shahpura, Alwar, Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Sawai Madhopur districts of the state.

At Shahpura, in the outskirts of Jaipur, four people were injured after they were struck by lightning.

In its forecast, the Jaipur met office said mild to moderate showers accompanied by hailstorm would continue at many places in the north-eastern parts of the state in the next 24 hours.

Sunday’s rainfall also took the mercury down across the state with a dip of almost 4 degrees Celsius in minimum and maximum temperatures on an average. Sriganganagar remained the coldest in the state, recording a minimum temperature of 12.9 degrees Celsius.