About 42 per cent of India is abnormally dry

A lake in Ajmer has all but dried. Pic/AFP

New Delhi: About 42 per cent of India is 'abnormally dry' which is around 6 per cent more than last year, according to the Drought Early Warning System (DEWS).

In the May 28 update of the real time drought watcher, the percentage of abnormally dry area increased to 42.61 per cent from a week before (May 21) when it was 42.18 per cent.

The increase is 0.45 per cent from April 28 when it was 42.16 per cent. The situation was little better on February 27 when 41.30 per cent area was abnormally dry. The dry index has worsened over the last year as 36.74 per cent of the area in India was abnormally dry on May 28, 2018.

Some of the worst affected areas are in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Heatwave to continue
Heatwave conditions are likely to continue over north Indian plains, central and south India for two more days and abate gradually, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday.

Intense heat continued to paralyse normal life in Rajasthan where a farmer died of sunstroke on Sunday, as Churu remained the hottest place with a maximum of 49 degrees Celsius.

Severe heatwave conditions are likely to persist in Madhya Pradesh and west Rajasthan on Monday, IMD said. IMD also has an amber-coded warning (severe) for east Rajasthan and Vidarbha in Maharashtra and a yellow-colour coded warning (less severe) for Marathwada, Surat and Kutch, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi for Monday.

49oc
The temperature in Churu, Rajasthan on Sunday

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