Heavy rains, hailstorm bring smiles to Delhi NCR, damage crops in northwest India

While Delhi-NCR residents rejoiced unusual hailstorm that whitewashed parts of the national capital region on Thursday, heavy rains and snowfall wrecked havoc across Kashmir besides damaging apple orchards in several parts of Himachal Pradesh. The bad weather severely affected the standing crops in rest of the northwest India, raising concerns over the overall output and the food-quality this season.

Delhi-NCR region

After nearly a decade, heavy hailstorm accompanied by rains lashed several parts of Delhi-NCR on Thursday, providing the city with fresh air while also making the people experience the winter chill again at the maximum temperature of 19 degrees Celsius, four notches below the season's normal.

"Areas like Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Palam received the maximum amount of hail and rains on Thursday evening, while central Delhi was lashed by heavy rains," Mahesh Palawat, Director at private weather agency Skymet, told IANS.

"Minimum temperatures are likely to fall by 4-6 degrees Celsius over northwest India from February 8. A fresh western disturbance is likely to affect the whole of northwest India from February 10 onwards," an India Meteorological Department (IMD) bulletin said.

The minimum on Friday is expected to hover around 10 degrees Celsius, while the maximum is expected to remain at 19 degrees, with moderate to shallow fog in the morning.

Jammu and Kashmir

While the Srinagar-Jammu highway continues to remain closed, fresh snowfall again forced cancellation of flights at the Srinagar airport on Thursday, disconnecting Kashmir from rest of the world.

Rescue efforts are underway to save 10 policemen missing after a police post in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district came under an avalanche on Thursday.

Heavy snowfall across Kashmir since last night forced people to prefer staying indoors Thursday, even as vehicular movement in the summer capital and Srinagar and elsewhere in the Valley was reported to be thin due to accumulation of snow.

A Met department official said almost all parts of Kashmir received moderate to heavy snowfall during the last 24 hours. The authorities have issued a fresh avalanche warning for avalanche-prone districts of Kashmir, including Anantnag, Kulgam, Budgam, Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora and Ganderbal.

Himachal Pradesh

Regions of Himachal Pradesh have witnessed heavy snowfall this week. The snowfall has triggered avalanche in several places of the hill state, damaging apple orchards.

Heavy snowfall in the capital city, Kufri and Narkanda has brought all vehicular movement to a grinding halt.

Following the avalanche warning by the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE), Manali, the Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (HPSDMA) has issued an advisory for snow and avalanche from February 7 evening to February 8.

The residents in five districts of Chamba, Lahaul-Spiti, Shimla, Kinnaur and Kullu have been asked to stay away from higher slopes. The meteorological office has predicted heavy snowfall in the coming days in the hill state and a ‘red’ alert has been issued for today.

Punjab-Haryana

Hailstorms, accompanied with rains and high velocity winds, also hit Punjab and Haryana over the last 24 hours, leaving behind uprooted trees and broken branches.

Met officials said that rain and strong winds could hit the region in the next 24 hours.

Chandigarh and its surrounding areas were lashed by moderate to heavy rain since Thursday, accompanied by strong winds.

The stormy weather also hit standing crops in many parts of both agrarian states and the governments have directed their revenue departments to conduct 'girdawari' (assessment of crop damage), mainly wheat, officials said.

"The standing wheat crop, which would have been harvested in mid-April, has been flattened by the rain and strong winds. The damaged crop cannot be retrieved," Gurmit Singh, a farmer near Punjab's Ropar town, 50 km from Chandigarh, told IANS.

Wheat, maize, peas are the other major Rabi crops that have reported substantial damages in Punjab.

Jasbir Bains, Director of the state Agriculture Department, said an assessment of the damages would be done once the rains stop.

Karnal-based farmer Manoj Munjal said the wheat crop can be damaged if the rainfall exceeds 20 mm and water does not recede from the fields in two to three days time.

A senior Agriculture Ministry official said the thunderstorm will have a negative impact on the major crops -- mustard, maize, and wheat -- that were still in the flowering stage. "Wherever, these crops have passed the flowering and fruiting stages, the rains may not damage them much. Those still in the initial stage of cultivation would certainly be impacted," said the official.

Uttar Pradesh

In other parts of north India, farmers said horticulture crops, particularly, potato were badly damaged while the impact on wheat and mustard crops would be known after a few days.

Harpal Singh from Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar, said potato harvest in his area would be very low this time due to the incessant rains coupled with hail hitting the fields for past two days.

"Farmers in our region were earlier worried over price fall. Now, the crop has been damaged due to hailstorm and water-logging," he said.

Singh further said potato output would not just lower but the quality would also suffer.

(With agency inputs)