Written by: Express News Service
2 min readAhmedabadJun 18, 2013 05:33 AM IST
First published on: Jun 18, 2013 at 05:33 AM IST
The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a warning for moderate to heavy rainfall with thundershowers at most places in North,South,Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat in the next 48 hours.
The forecast for Saurashtra and Kutch regions in Gujarat predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall,as two more deaths were reported in rain-related incidents till Monday evening.
According to sources,both deaths happened in Amreli district of Saurashtra where a youth was washed away in a flooded stream in Savarkundla Sunday evening,and a man reportedly died of a heart-attack after a lighting bolt struck the ground in Rajula taluka.
Meanwhile,Ahmedabad received 45.6 mm rainfall this monsoon,18 mm above normal. Two deaths were reported Sunday night when a tree fell on an auto rickshaw in Astodia. The municipal authorities had to arrange for pumps to flush out water in the city’s localities that flooded various locations in Ahmedabad. The worst waterlogged areas in Ahmedabad included Khanpur,Raikhad,Chamapura,Thakkarbapanagar-India colony and Naroda road.
In the last 24 hours,Surat city received four inches of rainfall. All 36 flood gates of Hathnur dam were kept open to discharge 45,000 cusecs of water into Ukai Dam. The water level in the dam crossed 307 feet,inching closer to the danger mark of 345 feet.
In Rajkot,Upleta taluka recorded 501 mm rain,followed by Jamkandorana at 320 mm. Jetpur and Dhoraji also received 303 mm and 302 mm rains respectively,while Jamkhambhaliya in Jamnagar district received 411 mm rains.
Cultivation of cotton,groundnut begins
With the arrival of the monsoon in the state,sowing of major cash crops such as cotton and groundnut has begun across state.
State agriculture department officials said while it will take some time for sowing of other crops,cotton and groundnut cultivation had begun.
Deputy director (agriculture statistics) J H Suthar said cotton had been sown over 1100 hectares and groundnut over 400 hectares by the end of last week.
The total area covered under cotton and groundnut was 26,977and 14,435 hectares respectively.
Suthar further said it would take at least two to three weeks more for paddy to be sown as paddy cultivation areas in central and south Gujarat had not received adequate rains.
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