Cyclone Aila hit India’s normal monsoon pattern

September 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's monsoon deficit has increased to 22 percent this year and the southwest monsoon has started withdrawing from the northern region, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Friday. "The cumulative seasonal rainfall for the country as a whole is now 22 percent below the Long Period Average (LPA)," a release from the IMD said.

June 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Agriculture Secretary T Nanda Kumar will meet Agriculture Secretaries of states on Thursday to discuss the situation arising due to delayed monsoon. Agriculture Secretaries of states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh will meet to consider measures to deal with the situation.n Wednesday, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Prithiviraj Chavan has said that the Southwest Monsoon is likely to remain below normal level vis-à-vis the original prediction and conventional rainfall.

June 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Prithiviraj Chavan on Wednesday said that the Southwest Monsoon is likely to remain below normal level vis-'-vis the original prediction and conventional rainfall. The second and revised forecast has predicted near-normal rainfall with 96 per cent rain of the long-term average, which the government officials say, may vary and even belie the hopes.

June 23rd, 2009 RANCHI - With no signs of the heat abating any time soon, farmers in Jharkhand may be in deep trouble. If the monsoon continues to be delayed, the state may find itself facing a drought.

June 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Delhi will continue to bake for another 10 days due to a delayed monsoon. According to the Met department, the monsoon reached Mumbai Sunday and is expected to hit the national capital around July 1.

June 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Weeks after cyclone Aila devastated parts of West Bengal and its green lung the Sunderbans, an international aid body Friday said that hundreds of people are still struggling to avail of basic amenities in the area. "Scarcity of drinking water is a major issue.

June 5th, 2009 KOLKATA - Cyclone Aila that devastated parts of West Bengal last month damaged solar power panels worth Rs.50 crore (Rs.500 million) in the Sundarbans, an official said here Friday. "We've estimated that a huge bulk of solar panel devices worth Rs.50 crore was completely damaged due to cyclone Aila last week in Sundarbans," the managing director of West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation Ltd, S.P Gon Chowdhury told reporters on the sidelines of a enviromental conference.

June 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Centre would soon send a team to assess the damage caused by recent cyclone "Aila" in West Bengal, state, it has been assured to the State Government, said West Bengal Finance Minister Ashim Das Gupta on Tuesday. Ashim, after meeting the Union Home Minister P.Chidambaram on Tuesday in the national capital, said that Chidambaram has also promised that he would sympathetically consider all the demands for rehabilitation of the cyclone-affected people.

June 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - West Bengal's Finance Minister, Dr. Ashim Dasgupta, will meet Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today and submit a report on the recent devastation caused by cyclone Aila in the state.

June 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Oxfam, a leading humanitarian relief and development agency, has pointed out in an assessment report that the ongoing relief operations are not sufficient to meet the needs of the people affected by the Aila cyclone. "Though the government of West Bengal has been very proactive in responding to the cyclone Aila by carrying out immediate search and rescue work, the relief operations are not sufficient to meet the needs of the affected people," said Nisha Agrawal, CEO, Oxfam India.

May 30th, 2009 KOLKATA - The West Bengal government will rebuild 400 kms of embankments destroyed by Cyclone Aila in the mangrove forests of Sundarbans in an effort to save the region from any more floods in the coming monsoon. "We'll start constructing 400 kms of embankments in Sundarbans and will try to finish the work within the next one week," state Irrigation Minister Subhas Naskar told reporters after surveying the cyclone-hit villages in the Sundarbans Saturday.

May 28th, 2009 SILIGURI - With the recovery of three more bodies, the toll in the landslides in West Bengal's hill district of Darjeeling due to Cyclone Aila has risen to 27, police said Thursday. "We have recovered three bodies from the debris at Rangiabong under Jorbungalow police station area this (Thursday) morning.

May 26th, 2009 SILIGURI - At least 22 people were killed and several injured in landslides - triggered by Cyclone Aila - in West Bengal's hill district of Darjeeling Tuesday, police said. "At least 22 people died and 10 were injured in landslides across Darjeeling district.

May 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Tuesday asked the central government to urgently provide all necessary assistance to the West Bengal government to carry out relief and rehabilitation operations in the state hit by Cyclone Aila. The cyclone battered coastal West Bengal and hit Kolkata Monday as it uprooted trees, electricity poles and thatched homes, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, killing 27 people and affecting 110,000 others.

April 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The country will experience 'near normal' monsoon this year, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Friday forecast. 'The rainfall during the 2009 South-West monsoon season from June to September in the country is likely to be near normal,' said a statement from the IMD.