Cycle of extremes: Erratic monsoon hits crops in Karnataka's Kaveri basin

The rainfall anomaly in the Kaveri basin is part of a larger trend where climate change results in spells of torrential rain interspersed with unusually dry periods

Erratic rainfall this monsoon damaged 25 per cent of the kharif (summer) crops sown in the districts along the Kaveri river basin of southern and interior Karnataka, according to a local farmer’s collective. The farmers here had postponed the sowing of these crops to August because June and July, traditional sowing months, had reported scanty rainfall. But torrential rains in August destroyed a quarter of the crops, both young and mature.

The southern areas of the Kaveri basin reported a 28 per cent rainfall deficiency and central areas 22 per cent, according to the India Meteorological