NEW DELHI: More than half of India is staring at drought-like conditions as the rainfall deficit stood at 10% after June-end. Out of India’s 36 meteorological sub-divisions, 19 received deficient rainfall.
The less rainfall results in the less sowing of major crops such as paddy, arhar pulses (pigeon pea), maize and sunflower oil. It will push food inflation further, potentially causing a headache to the government in an election year.
Monsoon in June intensified in the last week of the month. A week earlier, the deficit was over 30%. The most rainfall deficit regions were the southern peninsula, East and North-East regions, and central India. Only the Northwest region received surplus rainfall due to the impact of cycle Biporjoy.
There are 19 sub-divisions experienced deficient (between -20%to -59% than normal), and two sub-divisions experienced large excess category deficient rainfall (over -60% than normal). The deficient region is mostly southern peninsular states and East and North-Eastern States such as Karnataka, Goa, Telangana, a major part of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, south West Bengal,
Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura. These regions are critical to kharif rice-producing area.
The large excess deficient regions are the Kerala and Marathwada region of Maharashtra. Though June had deficit rainfall, witnessed extreme rainfall incidents. In the past five year, June 2023 stood top in terms of ‘very heavy rainfall’ with 377 incidents. It stood second in 62 incidents of extremely heavy rainfall. The IMD categorizes very heavy rainfall if it is between 115.6 mm to 204.5 mm and ‘extreme heavy rainfall’ category if rainfall is beyond 204.5 mm. Moreover, the less rainfall increased heat wave incidents. This June has the third-highest number of heat waves in the past 23 years.