As scientific tools falter in predicting rain patterns, Indian scientists turn to the Vedas and traditional knowledge for some fine tuning.
Nearly 70 percent of India’s population relies almost exclusively on agriculture, so accurate weather forecasts are extraordinarily important. During the past 100 years, the monsoon has been normal 85 times, so predicting an uneventful season is relatively safe. Nevertheless, during the last two decades, the official rainbow chasers have gone terribly awry.
Retired Air Vice Marshal Ajit Tyagi, director general of Indian Meteorology Department (IMD), admits, “The extremes are really difficult to forecast.” The 135-year-old department, supported by dedicated satellites and hordes of sophisticated Doppler radars, predict the amount of rainfall (in percentage) annually. Every year, IMD projects precipitation levels on a scale, in which it predicts either a normal monsoon, a drought or a flood. The country’s economic fortunes and rural lives hang on its projections.
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Published in the magazine - Little India - the largest circulated Indian publication in the United States, as well as the largest circulated overseas Indian publication in the world.
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