Caught off-guard: Unseasonal hailstorms, rain wipe out entire fields in Rajasthan, Punjab days before harvest

In farmer Bhagirath Karwasra’s 7.5-hectare (ha) field, a thick white blanket stretches to every corner, like a hill station after a snowfall, except this is Bikaner in Rajasthan, and it is April, and nothing here is supposed to be white.

During April 2-4, the sky unleashed repeated spells of rain and sudden barrages of hail, with some hailstones as large as lemons, in his village in Bikaner district. “One hundred per cent gone,” said Karwasra, when asked about crop damage. Wheat, chana and mustard growing in his field have all been wiped out.

He had wheat on almost 4 ha, mustard on 3 ha and rest had barley, chana (chickpea) and isabgol (psyllium), all just days away from being harvested.

Karwasra had sown these crops between October and November, tending them through an already difficult season of unseasonable heat. To lose them now — days from harvest — is the kind of blow that doesn’t have a clear number attached to it. To the extent that it can be counted, the losses are staggering. Wheat and mustard cost him Rs 9.6 lakh on 7 ha. In a normal year, each ha yields 47-50 quintals of wheat. This year, there will be none.

Farmers in some 20 villages in Bikaner’s Arjunsar region are experiencing similar distress. Unseasonal and heavy hailstorms caused widespread damage to Rabi crops in several districts of Rajasthan. 

In the week beginning March 25, Bikaner recorded 480 per cent excess rainfall. Across Rajasthan’s 33 districts monitored by the India Meteorological Department, 19 received ‘large excess’ rainfall and four received ‘excess’ rainfall. Districts like Dausa recorded 3,060 per cent excess in a single week; Tonk, 3,404 per cent.

The rainfall was brought by two successive western disturbances (WD), which are rain-bearing wind systems that originate in the Mediterranean region, and travel over 9,000 km, picking up moisture along the way, to bring rains to northwest India.

Northwest India is again in the grip of another WD, with its peak activity on April 7-8, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD). Even the month of March saw around eight WDs, against the normal of four to five, leading to rainfall during the second half of the month. 

Rajasthan recorded a staggering 790 per cent excess rainfall in the last week of March — nearly eight times the normal — and the first week of April brought another 79 per cent excess.

The crisis is not confined to Rajasthan. Across the wheat fields of Punjab, many farmers have reported their wheat crop being destroyed by rain and winds, trimming yields that were already under pressure from an unusually warm February.

In the northern state's Moga district, farmer Mandeep Singh, who cultivates 28 ha of wheat, estimated losses of 30-35 per cent. “Rain has flattened the crop. We’ll know the exact loss only during harvesting,” he says. The problem, he added, did not begin with the rain. “Earlier high temperatures had already affected the crop. Now this.”

Wheat needs a sustained cold spell during its grain-filling stage to develop firm, heavy kernels. What it got instead was an abrupt end to winter. India recorded 24 cold wave or cold day events in January 2026, but February —the critical month for grain development — passed without a single such event, a Down To Earth analysis found earlier. Cold conditions last showed up on January 25 in isolated pockets, then disappeared. 

But after the warmth, came the rain, strong winds and hail. And the worst is not over. IMD has forecast light to moderate rainfall accompanied by strong winds at 40-50 km per hour in Bikaner, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Pali, Sri Ganganagar, Phalodi, Jodhpur, Dausa and Nagaur districts of Rajasthan for April 7-8. 

What strikes farmers across north India is not just the losses, but the timing. Over the years, farmers have lived with the seasonal risk to their crops — a failed monsoon or excess rainfall in July and August, or unusual heat in March. But April hailstorms and gusty winds fall outside that risk calendar. 

In Salempur Masandan village in Punjab’s Jalandhar district, farmer Jaskaran Johal said that two or three spells of high winds and rain in March and April have flattened portions of his wheat, causing around 10-15 per cent damage. In the first week of April, Punjab recorded 210 per cent excess rainfall. This means it received more than twice the rain it normally gets in that period. “During monsoon, we are at least somewhat prepared mentally to face the risk,” Johal said.

Before the damage in wheat, his potato crop dealt him a sharper blow this season. Johal had potato in 10 ha this season. He has harvested it, but the yield is lower than expected. The unusual heat in February and March caused the crop to rot in parts even before it could be fully dug out. 

What he managed to bring to market has fetched prices that don’t cover what it cost to grow. A 50 kg bag of potato sold for Rs 100. The cost of producing that same bag was between Rs 200-250, he said.

It is the kind of loss that crop insurance is supposed to soften. But Karwasra's experience shows that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) — India’s flagship crop insurance scheme — has not delivered. At the beginning of the Rabi season, he paid a PMFBY premium of Rs 9,000-10,000 per ha. But he is yet to receive any insurance amount even for last year’s crop damage, he said. “Yesterday, the SDM came, the tehsildar also came and they noted down 100 per cent loss and left. But I don’t have any hope.”