Monsoon starts retreating; deficient rains in 8 states

The southwest monsoon on Tuesday started withdrawing from parts of southwest Rajasthan and adjoining Kutch in Gujarat, with at least eight states, including rice bowl states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar reporting deficient rains.

It was for the first time since 2016 that the monsoon started withdrawing in the third week of September.

"Southwest monsoon has withdrawn from parts of southwest Rajasthan & adjoining Kutch today, against its normal date of withdrawal from southwest Rajasthan of September 17," the India Meteorological Department (IMD) tweeted.

The weather office said the conditions for withdrawal of monsoon - no rains for five days, formation of anti-cyclone and dry weather conditions over the region - were met.

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"The line of withdrawal of the southwest monsoon passes through Khajuwala, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Naliya," it said.

According to the weather office, India had received 7 per cent excess rains, but eight states - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Punjab, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur - recorded deficit rainfall.

The southwest monsoon season begins on June 1 and continues till September 30. India received 878.5 mm of rainfall between June 1 and September 20, which was 7 per cent higher than the normal rainfall of 822 mm for the period under review.

The deficient rains in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh has hit sowing for paddy in the states. As of September 16, the area sown to paddy was 18.90 lakh hectares less than the previous year during the kharif season.

According to the agriculture ministry, area sown to paddy as on September 16 was 399.03 lakh hectares as against 417.93 lakh hectares last year.

Of the 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh, 13 are in the large deficient category (-60 to -99 per cent rain deficit) and 46 in the deficient category -20 to -59 per cent), but the state has good irrigation facilities which were deployed during the sowing operations.

As many as 20 districts in Jharkhand, 10 districts in Bihar and four districts in West Bengal have reported less than 75 per cent sowing.