With the monsoon improving this week, over 39 per cent of the country received excess rainfall this year, an increase by six per cent over last week.
According to the Meteorological Department (IMD), as per the data collected from June 1 to September 25, over 47 per cent of the country received normal rainfall.
Overall, the country received 905 mm of rainfall as compared to 864 mm, which is 5 per cent more than the normal rainfall, while some parts saw a deficit in the rainfall to the tune of 29 per cent.
Last week, the IMD reported that over 33 per cent of the country had received excess rains, while 53 per cent received normal rainfall.
“There are some regions that received normal rainfall until last week, yet they were on the border line. As these areas received better rains this week, these areas were upgraded as the ones that had received excess rainfall,” said a senior scientist at the IMD.
The regions that received excess rainfall are the western coast of India, parts of western Gujarat, Maharashtra, eastern Rajasthan, parts of Odisha, Kerala, Karnataka, and Jammu and Kashmir.
This year, central India received rainfall of 1,149 mm as compared to normal rainfall of 954 mm, a 21 per cent increase.
However, despite the increase in rainfall in some parts of the country, parts of eastern India, namely Bihar and Jharkhand and almost the entire north-eastern region continued to receive “deficient rainfall”.
The region normally receives rainfall of 1,393 mm, but this year it has only received rainfall of 995 mm- which is 29 per cent less.
The Bihar government has already declared “drought” in 33 of 38 districts.