A cloud burst in Uttarakhand left a massive swathe of destruction, washing away homes and schools, besides leaving villages and farms submerged after flash floods. Areas in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam were inundated as rivers overflowed after Nepal was forced to open dam gates upstream. At least 50 people are estimated to have died in Uttarakhand. Officials in neighboring Uttar Pradesh state reported 34 deaths while nine are said to have died in Bihar.

Farmers are trying to cope with the situation where possible. "It's a challenging situation with 120 villages hit by the floods. We estimate over 25,000 hectares largely under paddy to be impacted. Sugarcane crop is unlikely to see any major loss," said Amrit Lal Meena, agriculture secretary, Bihar. Farmers in these villages could sow short-duration paddy or opt for early rabi sowing of maize, pulses --masur, chana--and oilseeds such as mustard, he said. Paddy has been sown on 85 per cent of the targeted 34 lakh hectares in the state.

Most parts of the flood-hit regions are totally marooned and can only be reached by helicopter, said AK Bishnoi, Uttar Pradesh director of agriculture. "The districts of Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, have been severely impacted. We assume over 65,000 hectare under paddy, sugarcane and pulses to be affected by the floods," Bishnoi said. He said that if the water remained stagnant it could damage the paddy. "We are advising farmers to go for 60-day oilseed crop, toria, if their farms are flooded," he said.

Horticulture farmers have been badly hit, said Anuj Kumar, managing director of Knids Green Pvt., which procures 10-15 tonnes of vegetables a day from producer companies in Bihar and individual farmers and traders in different states. "The immediate impact of the floods has been on horticulture farmers, who were harvesting the crop," he said. "Prices have increased by over 50 per cent to 100 per cent, so there is some comfort to farmers."

In Patna, lady finger, which was quoted at Rs 25 a kg in retail two days ago, was being sold at Rs 45-50 a kg. Potato prices had increased by 50 per cent to Rs 30 a kg, while cucurbits had doubled to Rs 30 a kg, said Kumar.

Vegetable vendors in Delhi reported a jump in prices. "Prices of most vegetables have increased by Rs 5-10 a kg in the past two days," said Ranjit Singh, a vegetable vendor in the Mayur Vihar area of New Delhi. He said prices of potatoes, onions and tomatoes had also seen an upswing.

The weather office forecast heavy rainfall over east and northeast India and parts of the south in the next 48 hours. "We don't see any possibility of heavy rains over Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in the next 72 hours. However, in isolated pockets of east India, heavy rains are expected. These are not going to be as intense as it has been in the past four days," said BP Yadav, head of the National Weather Forecasting Centre at the India Meteorological Department in New Delhi.

Rain over the past few days is expected to help sowing of paddy and maize in Bihar, said Meena. "Twenty-nine out of 37 districts in the state have received less-than normal rainfall. We expect sowing to pick up this season," he said. The seasonal monsoon deficit in the state is 10 per cent. IMD data showed that 57 per cent of the country — 20 out of 36 subdivisions — received normal monsoon rainfall this season.

Source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/