It may not pour heavily in Agumbe this year

Agumbe, about 90 km from this coastal city, is known as the Cherrapunji of the south. Receiving a total annual rainfall of 8,000 mm, for decades this picturesque village nestling amid the rainforests of Malnad has been compared to the Assam town, which records over 11,100 mm of total rainfall and is deemed to be the third wettest place on the earth.

But Agumbe’s claim to fame is under serious threat. The rainforest complex, as the village and its neighbourhood is known in the weatherman’s parlance, was receiving at least 4,000 mm rainfall during the monsoon months between June and August.

But for two years now, the monsoon rainfall in the Agumbe rainforest complex (ARC) is wavering in the range of 3,250 mm to 3,500 mm.

And the situation may be the same this time too, locals fear.

“There is an aberration in the onset of monsoon this year. The India Meteorological Department had forecast its onset in Kerala for May 28, but it set in earlier by at least three days. Besides, the monsoon skipped Andaman and Nicobar islands and Sri Lanka. There has been a burst of showers on the coast,” said VS Prakash, director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Corporation (KSNMDC).

“There will be less rain in Malnad and South Interior Karnataka (SIK) in the next one week due to low pressure areas over both Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. This system takes moisture from the land which is an interesting situation to study at this point of time,” says Sunil Gavaskar, project scientist, KSNMDC.

“It is early to say if an El-Nino is forming. Still there are several parameters including the surface sea temperature to be taken into consideration to accurately predict the course of the monsoons,” said Gavaskar.

Shimoga district deputy commissioner V Ponnuraj told DNA: “So far, the rains have behaved well in Agumbe. I am receiving reports stating that the rainfall is ranging between 50-60mm daily which is more or less on normal lines.”

However, local ‘rain chasers’ and ‘monsoon observers’ in Thirthahalli and Agumbe towns said, “We are afraid we are getting less and less rain every year. We do not know the reason but local environmentalists say that Malnad areas are losing the thick blanket of forests which has brought down the volume of rain.
Researchers at the Agumbe Rainforest Research Centre which has been set up by well known herpetologist Romulus Whitaker, said the rainforests were shrinking due to the hunger for timber, increasing human habitation and proliferation of resorts and estates.