Finally, monsoon hits region
Vibha Sharma/TNS

New Delhi, July 6
Monsoon has finally arrived in the region, bringing the much-required relief to Chandigarh and parts of Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and east Rajasthan. The northern limit of monsoon (NLM) is at present passing through Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Aligarh, Chandigarh and Amritsar and is just about on the doorstep of Delhi, which, too, received a decent spell of pre-monsoon showers this evening.

Though lacking in vigour, the monsoon has managed to cover most parts of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh and the entire Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Haryana, Punjab and east Rajasthan. The Met office says conditions are favourable for its further advance into some more parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab and in the remaining areas of UP by tomorrow.

That should bring cheer to farmers and the common man, who had been braving the unprecedented heat wave conditions this summer. The monsoon is running way behind its schedule with the country on the whole till date recording a cumulative rainfall deficiency of 30 per cent. Northwest is leading the pack with a massive 71 per cent rainfall deficiency followed by central India (33 per cent), South peninsula (27 per cent) and east and northeast India (13 per cent).

Despite some “good rainfall activity” this week over Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal, east Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand, cumulative rainfall for the country as a whole was still 49% below the long period average (LPA). With 83% shortfall, the worst affected was northwest, Punjab, Haryana and western UP.

Of the 36 meteorological subdivisions, this week the rains were excess or normal in 10, deficient in 17 and scanty in nine. In area-wise distribution, 18% area of the country received excess or normal rainfall and the remaining 72% area had deficient or scanty precipitation. Director, IMD, SC Bhan assures a good monsoon run in the remaining season that would “make up the deficit” recorded so far, some independent experts fear a “patchy run”. “The rains may not be evenly spread in the region,” they caution.

Northwest is not dependent upon the monsoon for kharif but the rains are required to augment groundwater and reservoir supplies. Apart from supplementing irrigation needs during monsoon, reservoirs are important for hydroelectric power generation and irrigating winter crops, and the fact is that across the country water level in the main reservoirs is below the last year’s levels.