India and Bangladesh have signed a pact in New Delhi on July 17 agreeing not to prevent each other from carrying out anti-erosion work along the border in malda district.

The district magistrate of Malda, Chittaranjan Das, said huge plots of Indian land on the border were eroded by the river. "The problem is particularly bad in areas like Old Malda, Habibpur and Bamungola where the border fencing and pillars have gone missing with the Mahananda eating into its banks.'

By Narayan Bareth

Jaipur, July 18: Priests and scholars in Jaipur are still using astronomical instruments at the centuries-old Jantar Mantar observatory to predicts the monsoon. The pandits gathered at the observatory on Thursday evening and predicted good rainfall, but said the monsoon would be fragmented.

MONSOON WATCH
Surinder Sud / New Delhi July 18, 2008, 0:51 IST
Weighed down by uneven distribution of rains, kharif sowing prospects look uncertain. The southern peninsula is nearly 34 per cent short of rains and the situation in Maharashtra and parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan isn't too encouraging either.

This has jeopardised the outlook for several crops, including oilseeds, especially groundnut, pulses, notably tur (arhar), cotton and plantations. In fact, paddy and sugarcane can also be adversely affected if the conditions do not improve soon.

The poor monsoon in Maharashtra, the country's second largest soybean growing state, has forced farmers to resow the crop, and raised concerns over prospects of a record oilseed output, traders and industry officials said. Farmers will have to resow soybean in 20-25 per cent of total covered area in Maharashtra because of irregular showers, said Ajay Balotia, a Nagpur-based soybean trader. "The (soybean) seeds sown have dried up due to lack of water," said another Nagpur-based trader.

But all's not well, as rain floods fields due to lack of proper irrigation system in many districts Tikamgarh District (Madhya Pradesh): When the train pulled out of Delhi station on June 12, Sukhram felt something tug at his heart. The migrant labourer was going home to his two children but had little to take back to them. The thought of his parched, sun-baked land in Kaluguan

Insufficient rain in the central, southern and western parts of the country could hit kharif crop, a leading economist has said. "Kharif crops received insufficient rain in prominent cropping zones like Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Going forward, the southern states and central India may witness low rain hampering the growth of Kharif crops further,' NCDEX economist Shraddha Umarji said here.

Monsoon in Punjab has generally been good and covered most of parts of the state. This year monsoon arrived nearly 15 days early, but it was well distributed in June. This rain has been beneficial for the transplantation of paddy, and also for sugarcane and horticultural crops. For cotton and some vegetable crops, it has not been so good.

According to Agro-Meteorology Department experts of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) here, normal rainfall for June was 66.4 mm, but June 2008, recorded the highest rainfall of 277.3 mm in 40 years at Ludhiana.

flood Early monsoon hits India annual monsoon swept through India about two weeks early. But it brought heavy rains causing floods and landslides in eastern India. Unconfi-rmed sources say at least 52 people have been killed and over 3 million affected in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal. As on June 20, Subarnrekha river in Orissa was flowing above the danger

The inflation rate touched a 13-year high of 11.05 per cent for the week ended June 7, 2008. The big question now is: will the projected above-normal monsoon this year result in a bumper kharif harvest and a softening of food prices? Says B.P. Yadav, Director, Indian Meteorological Department: "We are anticipating a regular monsoon season this year with surplus rains in some parts of the country.'

GANDHINAGAR: Faced with sparse rainfall, the Gujarat government has decided to wait for another week, in the hope that the flagging monsoon would revive during this period, before taking a call on declaring the state drought-hit. A special meeting held by agriculture minister Dilip Sanghani observed that there was "nothing to worry about delay in rains as of now'. However, if the monsoon remains elusive for another week, an action plan to fight an impending drought will be announced.