Krishnanagar, Feb. 04: Sudden rain owing to moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal and for ‘western disturbances’ on eastern India dampened the spirit a day ahead of Saraswati puja and damaged huge cultivation of blooming flowers of different varieties in many districts in South Bengal on Friday.
Light to moderate rainfall coupled with thunderstorms that occurred in some places also dropped the mercury level playing the spoiler for the floriculture while paralyzing the normal life a day after the classroom teaching was resumed in the state creating a dip too in the attendance level of students.
The weather began to turn somber from Thursday night which the Alipore weather department attributed to moisture feeding on the Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea. The combined influence resulted in widespread moderate to heavy rainfall with localized thunderstorms from Friday morning.
As the IMD apprehended the central and coastal region of the state, the South Bengal districts witnessed incessant rain mostly throughout the day confining people inside homes.
Till Friday afternoon, Digha recorded 27 mm rainfall – the highest in the state followed by Dumdum and Kolkata 23 mm, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri both 9 mm Sriniketan 8 mm. Haldia recorded – 3 mm rainfall – the lowest in the state.
While normal public life was suffered due to the untimely rain in a major way along with preparations of Saraswati puja at home and schools as well as that of “Paray Shikshalay” proramme, the floriculture and horticulture incurred huge damage on the day. The floriculturists are afraid of further damage during the next 24 hours since the Alipore weather office apprehends light rainfall in several districts of South Bengal, particularly in Nadia, Murshidabad, and Birbhum. Head of Regional Meteorological Centre – Kolkata G.K.Das said, “Thunderstorm and lightning associated with rainfall between 7-11 cm likely to occur in these districts”.
The spate of rainfall has meanwhile unleashed a shockwave among the farmers in the flower-producing zones of Nadia, North 24 Parganas, East Midnapore, East Burdwan, and other districts amid the wedding season.
“It is an unexpected blow since huge flowers which are fully bloomed have been damaged”, an official of the state Horcitulure department in Calcutta said, adding that the district horticulture officers have been directed to assess the loss.
Ramzan Mullick, a farmer in Nadia’s Dhantala said, “I have incurred a loss of about Rs. 2 lakhs. I cultivated different flowers like aster, Chandra Mallika, rose, marigold, gladiolas on about five bigha land. All the flowers were fully bloomed and I had a big order to supply to the decorators. But, the entire production has been damaged”. Over 100 bigha of land with floriculture has been damaged due to rain in the Ranaghat block, he said.
Meanwhile, potato and onion production in Nadia, have also been damaged to a large extent due to waterlogging in the low-lying areas. An official of the FP & Horticulture department in Krishnagar said, “If the rain continues there would be a huge loss to potato production and some horticulture farming”.
However, officials of the agriculture department think that unless heavy rainfall occurs or continues during the next 24 hours, there would be no damage to the paddy production. “The moderate rainfall which occurred in most places would be helpful for the ongoing boro production”, Deputy Director of Agriculture – Nadia Ranjan Roy Chowdhury said.