Kishtwar cloudburst: Deficient rainfall in Kishtwar in monsoon season so far; now heavy rains kill 7
In the southwest monsoon season so far, between June 1 and July 27, Kishtwar district in Jammu & Kashmir reported a rainfall departure of minus 60 per cent. And now a ‘cloudburst’ has triggered flash floods. Climate scientists have been warning against such changing rainfall patterns.
Heavy rainfall and cloudburst has killed at least 7 people in Kishtwar, J&K. (File pic)
Today early morning, around 4:30 am, extremely heavy rainfall, being termed as a ‘cloudburst’, in a remote village in Kishtwar district of Jammu & Kashmir killed seven villagers and about 20 local people are missing. As per the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jammu Zone, 17 injured villagers have been rescued so far. Of these, five are critically injured.
Flash floods and landslide triggered due to very heavy rainfall have washed away six houses, damaged a ration depot and a bridge at Kiyar.
Rescue operations by the army, SDRF (State Disaster Response Force) teams and J&K police are underway in the affected areas. Chenab river is reportedly swollen due to incessant rainfall in the region.
“Deeply pained to learn about the loss of 4 precious lives and 30-40 others missing in Dacchan area of Kishtwar district due to cloud burst. My heartfelt sympathies are with the grieved families,” tweeted Chander Mohan Gupta, Mayor of Jammu.
Expressing his grief for those dead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted that the central government was monitoring the situation closely.
It has been raining continuously and heavily in Kishtwar since late last night and the district police has been on its toes informing and warning people. A police help desk has been set up with mobile number details of officials to contact in case of an emergency.
Deficient rainfall followed by cloudburst
Whereas the district is dealing with heavy rainfall disaster right now, as per the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) rainfall data, Kishtwar district in J&K has received ‘large deficient’ rainfall in this southwest monsoon season so far. ‘Large deficient’ rainfall is defined as rainfall between minus 99 and minus 60 per cent of the normal.
Between June 1 and July 27 this year, Kishtwar district has reported a rainfall departure of minus 60 per cent. As against its normal rainfall of 194.4 millimetre (mm), Kishtwar district has received only 78.6 mm rainfall. Even in the past 24 hours ending at 8:30 am on Jul 27, Kishtwar reported minus 86 per cent rainfall departure. And now extremely heavy rainfall since last night has triggered flash floods and caused mayhem. The met department is yet to update rainfall data for July 28 on its website.
The IMD data shows how the whole of June month, Kishtwar reported a rainfall departure ranging between minus 100 per cent and minus 89 per cent (large deficient rainfall).
July month also started on a ‘large deficient’ note of rainfall. In the week ending on July 7, the district reported a rainfall departure of minus 63 per cent. The following week, ending on July 14, the district had 4 per cent normal rainfall. But, the next week, ending on July 21, Kishtwar district again had minus 29 per cent deficient rainfall.
Overall, J&K and Ladakh have registered a rainfall departure of minus 11 per cent between June 1 and July 27.
Climate scientists have been repeatedly pointing out the changing monsoon rainfall patterns. In a recent episode of Gaon Connection’s Gaon Cafe, Roxy Mathew Koll, climate scientist with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, said that monsoon season now has long dry periods followed by bursts of extremely heavy rainfall.
Flash floods in Ganderbal, Samba in J&K
Earlier this month, heavy rainfall had triggered flash floods in Ganderbal and Samba districts of J&K, while the union territory was still in deficient rainfall category. Ganderbal, for instance, had reported 2271% ‘large excess’ rainfall in 24 hours. However, no loss of life was reported that time.
But, last night and today morning’s heavy rainfall has killed at least five villagers in Kishtwar and rescue works are still underway.
At the time when Ganderbal and Samba reported extremely heavy rainfall and floods, Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh also received incessant rainfall causing flash floods. However, overall the state still had minus 18 per cent monsoon rainfall.
Maharashtra floods
This month a number of states in India are braving floods triggered due to heavy rainfall. In the past one week, Maharashtra has been battered by extremely heavy rainfall with some districts breaking their previous records of all-time rainfall.
For instance, as per the IMD data, between 8:30 am on July 22 and 8:30 am on July 23, Mahabaleshwar, a hill station in Maharashtra, received 594 mm rainfall in 24 hours thereby breaking all its previous records of rainfall. Its previous record of the highest single day rainfall was 491 mm on August 11, 2008.
Kolhapur and Satara have also broken their previous records of the highest rainfall.
Meanwhile, Bihar has been facing floods for over a month now. At least 800,000 people in 15 districts are affected by the floods and facing acute shortage of safe drinking water and food items. Houses, farmlands, crops have been damaged too.
As per the IMD’s press statement issued today, July 28 morning, the “current spell of Widespread rainfall activity with isolated heavy to very heavy falls very likely to continue over Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh till 30th July and reduction thereafter. Isolated extremely heavy falls are likely over Himachal Pradesh today on 28th July and over Uttarakhand on 28th-29th July”.