Inundation caused by monsoon rains continued to trouble people here and in other parts of the state, while Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday inspected rain battered areas and distributed assistance to the affected people.
'After the 4th of May we can expect thunderstorms, dust storms and some rain over a large area of north India.'
The mercury in Delhi, which recorded its hottest day of the year so far at 45.6 degrees Celsius on Sunday, came down to 42.4 degrees Celsius, according to the India meteorological department.
As the growth figures relate to pre-Covid lockdown period it does not reflect the real picture of distress which unfolded from April onwards in the sector, when acute supply disruption led to sharp drop in prices of many commodities largely perishables impacting farmers.
Villages are flooded, roads have washed away and railway tracks have submerged under the rising waters.
The staff and security personnel are performing their duties using mechanised and country boats to deal with any kind of eventualities, they said.
55% of cultivable land still doesn't come under irrigation.
Despite Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis' ambitious plan, 40 per cent of the state is reeling from drought and its water tanker economy is booming. As of February 2019, the state government declared drought in 151 of the 358 talukas.
Many villages were cut off as several roads connecting them were inundated.
While the city received some showers late Wednesday night, it remained almost dry on Thursday.
A head of its meeting, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) can take some solace from the softening food commodity prices. However, the events surrounding the last few weeks show that the fall may not be uniform across all commodities, and cereals like wheat and rice could be the outliers. A Reuters report said that local wheat prices jumped to a record Rs 23,547 per tonne on Wednesday. That is a 12 per cent rise from the recent lows that followed the government's surprise ban on exports on May 14.
The India Meteorological Department has issued an 'orange' alert.
Despite high exposure to floods, Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Sikkim are the best performing states in terms of flood early warning systems (EWS), according to the report by independent policy research think tank The Council on Energy Environment and Water.
The rupee had lost 31 paise to close at one-month low of 61.07 on Wednesday on sustained dollar demand from banks and importers.
The Delhi traffic police advised commuters to avoid waterlogged streets.
The country also reported 1,750 deaths due to extreme weather events such as floods, cyclonic storms, heavy rain, landslides, lightning, among others, during the year, it said.
According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research Director General Trilochan Mohapatra, the insects have attacked about 40,000 hectares of land.
Extreme rainfall that occurred in Tamil Nadu is "highly localised" and is part of the natural variability of the monsoon system and its attribution to global warming is "not established", the Rajya Sabha was told on Monday.
Incessant showers caused landslides and floods in various parts of the country leaving at least 17 people dead on Wednesday while thousands more were forced to move to safety as rivers swelled and water reservoirs filled up fast.
A well-marked low pressure over Bay of Bengal and Indian ocean is likely to concentrate into a depression in the next 24 hours, and bring heavy rainfall to coastal Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Puducherry from December 1, MeT office said on Tuesday.
Waterlogging was reported from areas like Dadar, Wadala, Worli, Kurla, Chembur, Bandra, Andheri, Kandivili, Vikhroli, Kanjurmarg and Bhandup, among others.
Intense spells of rain are likely to continue in the districts of Thane, Raigad and Mumbai during next four hours, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Flash floods and landslips triggered by the monsoon fury left eight more persons dead, taking the number of people killed in calamity-hit Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh to 138 even as 2700 pilgrims and locals were rescued from Rudraprayag and Chamoli districts.
According to the India Meteorological Department, as of 8.30 am on Sunday, Thane reported 28 cm of rain, Santacruz 20.1 cm, and Colaba 13 cm.
The chief secretary said that as the state is witnessing heavy rains over the last three days, the collectors should be on high alert and take all steps to prevent loss of life, cattle or damage to any property.
The maximum temperature at the Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi's base station, is likely to rise to 45 degrees Celsius.
'Family, friends, far off relatives, almost everyone has been impacted by nature's fury.'
However, the estimates could change in the coming months, as full impact of excess rainfall and floods on the standing soybean and urad crops in central and western India in late August and September has not yet been fully taken into account.
The IMD DG said there should not be an impression that climate change leads to rise in the temperature, but on the contrary, it leads to erratic weather.
A red alert was declared in 8 districts of Kerala on Thursday by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) as rains continued to lash various parts of the state and disrupted the day-to-day lives of the people as roads got flooded or caved in and many got displaced from their homes to relief camps.
He also proposed various measures, including land tax waiver for farmers, to mitigate their suffering.
Bikers pushing their two-wheelers that were stuck and pedestrians struggling to navigate through knee-deep water was a common sight in some places.
Till July 26, kharif crops have been sown in around 68.87 million hectares, which is 6.43 per cent lower than the area covered during the same period last year.
Festive demand for gold in India got off to a tepid start, with local prices still at a heavy discount to the global benchmark, a bad sign for a period when buying is typically strong.
Mumbai recorded over 250 mm of rain in just three hours (between midnight and 3 am), touching 305 mm by 7 am on Sunday, a meteorologist said.
After lagging behind other segments in the automotive (auto) space over the past few years, two-wheelers are expected to reverse their volume underperformance. After witnessing a 36.3 per cent volume decline over the 2018-19 (FY19) through 2021-22 (FY22) periods, the sector staged a recovery in 2022-23 (FY23), with volumes rising 17 per cent. While volumes are still a quarter lower than the FY19 peak of 21 million units, a double-digit growth trajectory is expected to prolong.
'Mumbai's corroding infrastructure, Delhi's pollution, Bangalore's rain water drainage, Kolkata's electricity -- these are all real and serious life threatening situations.'
If El Nino condition affects the monsoons, as is being forecast by foreign agencies, it can slow down the economy to 5.2 per cent next fiscal from a projected 6 per cent.
An IMD bulletin said the low pressure area could intensify into a cyclonic storm, triggering heavy to very heavy rainfall in several parts of Kerala.
The Ayanagar weather station recorded 122.8 mm between 8.30 am on Wednesday and 8.30 am on Thursday, which was 11 times the normal rainfall.
