A drought is staring the country at its face. The weather office has now officially stated that the monsoon has been deficient in 63 per cent regions of the country and only 37 per cent has had normal rainfall.
The affected states include Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Marathwada and interior Karnataka.
The delayed monsoon has brought 20 per cent less rains than expected. Till Thursday, the country had received 378.8 mm rainfall against the normal of 471.4 mm.
“We expect monsoon to be 15 per cent deficient than the long period average which is 89 cm,” informed director-general L.S. Rathore, India Meteorological Department.
But quibbling on statistics continues with Mr Rathore explaining that a country-wide drought is declared when the monsoon rains are less than 90 per cent of the LPA and at least 20 per cent area of the country experiences a shortfall of rainfall by 25 per cent or more.
Mr Rathore clarified that while monsoon in August is expected to be normal, unfavourable El Nino conditions are set to develop on account of the warming of the central Pacific Ocean which are likely to adversely impact rainfall in the month of September.
Mr Rathore stated, “In August, we are hoping for a better rainfall scenario. But there will be some problem in the terminal part of the monsoon.”
The central Pacific Ocean is expected to experience a warming of the sea surface temperature between 0.5 to 0.7 degrees Celsius.
The last decade has already witnessed two major drought in both 2002 and 2009. In 2002, rainfall deficiency was to the tune of 19 per cent, while in 1918, rainfall deficiency was to the tune of 28 per cent.
This year, there has been a shortfall of 11 per cent in the Northeast, 36 per cent rain deficiency in the northwest, 15 per cent shortfall in central India and a 24 per cent in the southern peninsula.