Heavy rains cripple Bengaluru, more downpour in the offing

Bengaluru, May 27: Heavy rain, accompanied by lightning, thunder and strong winds, brought down many trees across the city and killed one person. The downpour affected power supply plunging many areas into darkness.

The police have identified the victim as Sateesh, 32, a resident of Kateramma Slum, near PKS Naidu Road, Cox Town. It is alleged that a branch came down and fell on an electric wire and snapped it. Satish came in contact with the entangled wire.

Meanwhile, at least 10 trees fell in Cubbon Park on Saturday.

According to reports, trees also fell on parked power lines and on parked vehicles.

The IMD says that this pre-monsoon activity is likely to continue for a few days as conditions are becoming favourable for the advance of the monsoon over southern part of Andaman Sea and adjoining south-east Bay of Bengal during the next two days.

A trough persists from south-Interior Karnataka to Comorin area across Tamil Nadu. Troughs are areas where thunderstorms and showers can form.

While in north India, a western disturbance is causing scattered rainfall and thunderstorm over the plains of north-west India. There is another western disturbance building up in the Western Himalayan region, which is likely to make impact Sunday onwards, as per IMD forecast.

With monsoon likely to makes its onset around June 6, the agrarian community is hoping for normal rainfall this year, to ease the agrarian crisis, resulting from consecutive droughts in various parts of the country. Last year, the monsoon ended with a deficit of nearly 9.4 %.