Srinagar, Feb. 13 -- For the past two consecutive years, J&K, particularly the Himalayan Valley, has witnessed largely dry winters with the amount of snowfall or rain not even crossing the half-way mark of the normal, the IMD data shared by the government in J&K Assembly said. The large-scale deficit has triggered a rethink in the government to have a collaborative climate-resilient response across various departments for water conservation, crop diversification and better weather monitoring as IMD is planning to make a hyper-local forecasting system over the Himalayan states. The data shared in the ongoing session of the assembly indicated that Jammu and Kashmir has received just 49.8% precipitation of the normal from October 2024 to February 2025 and 45.6% precipitation of the normal in the corresponding period (Oct-2025 to Feb-2026) this winter season so far. In response to a question by legislator Sajad Shaheen, the incharge minister of disaster management and relief department expressed the government's concern over the "adequacy" of the precipitation in J&K. "The India meteorological department data shows that the winter precipitation regime in the last two years has remained persistently and substantially below normal in Jammu & Kashmir. A divisional break-up indicates that the deficit has been more acute in Kashmir division," the minister said. Sharing the statistics, the response said that the last two years have recorded very large precipitation deficits vis-a-vis the normal. "During October 2024-February 2025, J&K received 50.11% less precipitation than normal. In the immediately following season October 2025- February 2026, precipitation further remained depressed reflecting an even higher deficit of 54.33%," the response said. htc...