Karnataka’s rainfall divide is also a water-management divide

Karnataka recorded an overall rainfall deficit in the early monsoon period, while Bengaluru received excess rain. More than half the districts faced a deficit and several river-basin districts received less than half their normal rainfall. The contrast makes a single state average a poor guide to local conditions.\n\nA wet city does not automatically solve shortages in agricultural or reservoir catchments. Water planning has to connect rainfall, storage, irrigation demand, power generation and urban consumption. It also needs district-level data so that farmers and civic agencies can act before a shortage becomes a crisis.\n\nThe Northern Review will look at the geography behind weather numbers and ask how public agencies convert forecasts into practical water decisions.