The monsoon’s bounty in Marathwada region...

 Amidst the gloom and despair that have been ensconsed by the Pandemic this year especially in India there are some rays of hope and glee which have escaped notice. 

The south west monsoon that invades Kerala early June every year gradually intensifies and engulfs the entire country in the months that follow . This year this important but mundane event was pre marked by few cyclonic storms that had great effect not only in the course but also the intensity of monsoon. First super cyclone Amphun ravaged parts of Odisha and Bengal in third week of May. Amphun, arguably one of the severest in recent years, made its landfall near Kolkata in the third week of May this year.The devastation has been so severe that the almost entire city of Kolkata, the State Capital, bore the brunt. Hundreds of trees uprooted disrupting power supply, shanties blown away by severe winds, window panes of high rises broken to pieces  the city and its suburbs  looked war ravaged.  it took more than a week for the administration to restore electricity in the city. As if this was not enough the State of Maharashtra was hit by cyclone Nisarga in early June. Though the  the devastation caused was not as severe as it was in Bengal the cyclone made the task of the Government and local administrations extremely difficult during the pandemic.Even though scientific data may not support, these two events had its effect in changing the pattern of monsoon to some extent. The North-Eastern states, especially Assam, has undergone floods of severe nature. The States of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, parts of Uttaranchal have also seen very heavy rainfall. In Maharashtra the capital city of Mumbai has seen heavy rainfalls that have erased earlier records. 

It is well known that plains of Maharashtra, especially the Marathwada region comprising eight districts, generally see scanty rainfall. The rain gods have never been bountiful and the districts in the region mostly remain perched. As a result the cultivation suffers and farm produce remains awful. The situation in summer becomes so terrible that women have to walk miles to fetch water to quench thirst. One may recall that in April 2016 how the situation went out of bound and the government had to run water trains dedicated for the purpose to supply water to city of Latur the district headquarters.

This year, may be due to varied reasons, Marathwada received heavy rainfalls. The Jayakwadi dam, the largest in Aurangabad section, having storage capacity of around 203 TMC , started overflowing in third week of September. It is quite unusual as the dam generally feeds itself with excess water released from dams located on Godavari river and its tributaries in Nashik division. The rainfall has its soothing effect that as on date the Marathwada region has around 192 TMC of water-sufficient to take care of its water needs till next monsoon.

The year that has been marked with numerous adversities ranging from the dreaded Corona virus, the Chinese mis-adventures at Ladakh, the entire world and its economy coming to halt due to the pandemic, the devastating cyclones, the attacks of our fields by locusts et al the news of our dams filled with life saving water provides solace of a different kind. The people of Marathwada have reasons to be happy for sure for not only the major dams are filled to brim but also the ground water level has shown a substantial improvement.

Before i sign off a great salute to the  people of this great nation who have taken every adversity in its own stride; they have fought the imminent danger emanating out of the adversities in their own inimitable way and have shown the world the resilience they are imbibed with. After all a nation is known by its people and its culture-people of India have again proved the adage right.

Again, the readers may agree or think otherwise. Their comments in the  box appearing at the end of this write will be always welcome.