Ajay Raina
JAMMU, Oct 14: Complete blackout due to hovering of dark clouds in the sky reflecting deep night hours, followed by heavy rains and thunder-storm brought the life in Jammu region to standstill for couple of hours in the morning, while there was steep decline in temperature as Kashmir valley today experienced rains in plains and light snowfall in upper reaches.
As the rains and thunderstorm providing much needed relief to the people from hot conditions that continued in the State for the past several days, but worried the paddy crop growers in the Jammu region.
According to a spokesman of the Department of Meteorology, the weather will improve from tomorrow and will remain dry for few days. Apart from historic Mughal Road, the upper reaches of mountainous belts of the State including Doda, Kishtwar, Rajouri and Bhaderwah received fresh snowfall, he added.
Following heavy rain, power supply was snapped across Jammu region while roads got blocked due to the blackout in this winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir in the morning at around 8:45 am. Dense black clouds which hovered over the sky were followed by rains and thunderstorm.
Residents, already battered by the heavy rain and thunderstorm, had to suffer a virtual blackout, thanks to damaged power lines and poles.
However, Jammu city continued to reel under massive traffic jams due to water-logging as heavy rains lashed the city flooding of several arterial roads and leaving commuters stranded for hours at the same time while exposing Jammu Municipal Corporation’s (JMC’s) lack of preparedness to deal with the perennial problem.
Water also accumulated in the residential houses and shops at various parts of the Jammu city including Krishna Nagar near GGM Science College, Bhawani Nagar, Jewel, Canal Road, etc. due to water-logging at Dogra Chowk, the traffic also crawled, which caused traffic disruption. This also happened in parts of R S Pura, Bishnah, Satwari and other areas.
The road from Jewel Chowk to Canal Road was seen littered with mud and sewage as always, thereby creating problems for the passersby. Similar situation was also witnessed in various parts of Jammu as pedestrians had a tough time treading water-logged streets.
The water-logging not only took place in district Jammu, but also in other districts of Jammu province including Doda, Ramban, Rajouri, Poonch, etc.
People lambasted the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) and Civic bodies of various districts for poor sanitation and sewerage system.
The rain and thunderstorm started early morning continued for couple of hours thus snapping the power supply due to fault in jumpers, isolators and even transformers in many areas of Jammu region. The power supply was restored in some areas till evening, but various parts remained in darkness till late night.
As per official sources in PDD, Donthli (D5) Feeder Station has suffered damages resulting into snapping of power supply in Old City, Sithli, Sidhra, Nagrota and adjoining areas. The power supply from Miran Sahib to Slad, Shastri Nagar to Satwari, Akhnoor to Jourian and Akhnoor to Tanda also remained snapped due to faulty in 33 KV transmission lines. The power supply to Bani and Basohli areas in district Kathua, Kotranka and Manjakote areas in district Rajouri, Battal area in district Udhampur, Bhaderwah, Thari and Bhatyas areas in district Doda and Dilwas area in district Poonch also remained snapped. The power supply in all the areas will be restored late tonight”, they added.
Despite rain, the 300-km-long Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, the only road linking the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country was through for traffic. The historic Mughal Road, connecting Jammu region via Rajouri and Poonch witnessed the season’s first snowfall, but the traffic was plying normally.
Meanwhile, rains, thunderstorms and hail have destroyed most of the standing crops in Samba, Kathua, Doda and other districts. Reports from the ground indicate substantial damage to winter crops like wheat, gram, mustard, fruits, even vegetables.
The picturesque hills in Bhaderwah valley of Doda district today received another spell of snowfall leading to a sharp dip in temperature. The snowfall was witnessed in Kailash mountain range leading to a sudden drop in temperature and forcing people to wear warm clothes and lit fire to protect them from chilly weather. The upper reaches of Bhadarwah had experienced season’s first snowfall on October 5, resulting in early frost which is considered unproductive for standing paddy.
“Our paddy crop is still in the fields and the hailstorm and strong winds today spoiled fifty per cent of our standing paddy crop”, Bashir Malik, a resident of Sarna village, said.
He said that the harvesting of China paddy will start in a couple of days but heavy rain and hailstorm destroyed hope of good yield as their is hardly any grain left on the paddy shells.
“We produce high quality and famous Daggu rice and entire Killar Valley is dependent on this crop. Paddy is still immature and will take at least another 10 days of dry and warm weather to start ripening but the early snowfall has badly hit the quality of the rice,” said a farmer and sarpanch of Duggli village in Killar belt of Bhaderwah.
When asked about the fears of the farmers, Chief Agriculture Officer Doda H K Razdan said, “Hailstorm will have a very bad effect on China rice as it was almost ripe and ready to be harvested. Sudden drop in temperature can trigger frost and affect the yield and quality of the paddy crop which is still immature”.
Spokesperson of Department of Meteorology told the EXCELSIOR that, a fall of nearly 3 degree Celsius in Jammu’s temperature was recorded after the rain and the people felt relief from hot conditions. While the maximum temperature in Jammu on Tuesday was 30.5 degree C, today the maximum temperature in the city here was 27.8 degree C. The minimum temperature as recorded by Met in Jammu was 23.1 degree C.
The spokesman added that Jammu recovered a rainfall of 27.8 millimeters (mm), Mata Vaishno Devi at Katra recorded 30.8 mm, Batote recorded 7.8 mm, Banihal recorded 9.0 mm and Bhaderwah recorded 10.8 mm. Samba, Kathua and Udhampur, Reasi and Ramban also experienced rain and thunderstorm, he said.
He further stated that the night temperature has increased, while the day time temperature witnessed fall, adding that the weather has improved from this evening and will remain pleasant for one week.
Meanwhile, due to rainfall and cloudy weather conditions prevailing all around the Trikuta Hills, the chopper service to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi from Katra town remained suspended today. The Yatra was suspended for around one hour from the old track due to shooting stone near Panchi area. However, the Yatra was restored and was smoothly progressing till last reports were compiled.
According to an official spokesman, the chopper service will resume only after the weather conditions improve.
At Srinagar, since early morning, the moderate to light rainfall was recorded in Kashmir valley. The downpour continued intermittently till late in the afternoon.
The upper reaches that include Sinthan Top and Peer Ke Gali along Mughal Road in South Kashmir experienced light snowfall.
Meteorological Department official told the Excelsior here that the Srinagar recorded 6.2 millimeters of rain today from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Qazigund, which is called gateway of Kashmir, recorded 4.3 millimeters while world famous tourist resort Pahalgam recorded 6.6. He said Kokernag in south Kashmir recorded 4.5 millimeters of rain and the frontier Kupwara in north Kashmir recorded 5.6 millimeters.
The official said the maximum temperature in Srinagar today was 14.5 degrees Celsius as compared to 27 degrees Celsius yesterday. The minimum temperature was however 11.8 degrees Celsius.
Due to drop in temperature, residents pulled out woolens from their wardrobes to keep themselves warm. Prior to today’s rainfall, the Valley witnessed warm autumn from past two weeks.
The spokesperson said the sky in Leh in Ladakh region would be partly cloudy and the maximum and minimum temperatures would be around 21 degree and six degree respectively.
The MeT department said that there would be improvement in weather from tomorrow but added that light rain and thundershowers may occur at isolated places in the region.
When contacted, Director, Department of Meteorology, Sonum Lotus, said that heavy to moderate rainfall was recovered in Jammu region, whileas light rainfall was recovered in Kashmir. As far as forecast is concerned, the temperature will improve from tomorrow and will remain dry for few days in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, he added.
Follow our WhatsApp channel