JK recorded 80 percent less rainfall

According to the J & K Meteorological department, Jammu and Kashmir has recorded 80 percent less rainfall than normal this year. The department has said that 80% deficiency in the rain is due to the absence of any strong western disturbance or the winds blowing from the Mediterranean bringing moisture. The director J&K Meteorological department Sonam Lotus has said that Jammu city received only 2.1 mm against normal of 68 mm and Srinagar city received 21.3 mm of rainfall as against normal of 117.6 mm in March. Whatever the reason may be, this news must not be taken lightly. It is true that this revelation made by the director of the J & K Meteorological department is in fact a warning to the people and administration of the UT. Deficiency in rainfall and that too by about 80 percent is an indication of the coming years of where people of the Jammu shall have to face the scarcity of drinking water and unusual rise in the temperature. Environmentalists, since long, have been warning of a water crisis in four districts of Jammu region, Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur in the coming few years. The districts of Reasi, Rajouri and Rambna will be the next to come under the areas of water scarcity. Who is responsible for this and why has this happened? Undoubtedly first of all we the people of Jammu and then the administration are the primarily responsible for this situation. But the policies being adopted by the government during the last couple of years are also as much responsible for this as the people and local administration is. In Jammu trees are being cut in thousands and forests spread over hundreds of acres are being allowed to be denuded in the name of so called development. For who this development is and what is the motive of this much hyped and claimed development. If the environment is crushed under the name of development, if the already fragile ecology of the region is damaged then it is not development but the lust of some people to earn money by throwing locals in an era of miseries and problems. Jammu people, before it is too late must rise and raise their voice against this devastation in the name of development. They should make it sure that any executing agency must not be allowed to carry out the work of so-called development till five times the number of trees of the same varieties are planted in advance around the same area where the trees are to be cut.