Monsoons have covered all of India: IMD

NEW DELHI: A fast-advancing southwest monsoon lashed all of north India with rains over Sunday night and Monday, providing relief to the government jittery over the 16% rainfall deficit in June.

“The monsoons have now covered all of India except some parts of western Rajasthan,” an India Meterological Department (IMD) spokesperson said.

The slow progress of the monsoon to the northern grain bowl had caused concerns in the government, already on the defensive because of the persistently high food inflation and the recent fuel price hike.

“If there is still any iffiness about the monsoons, it is only about the total quantum of rainfall that the different regions will now receive through July to September,” IMD director BP Yadav told ET.

Crop planting suffered last month as rainfall was 16% below normal. But the Met department said the delay was not worrisome. “In terms of sowing of kharif crops, this is not considered worrisome. If the rains keep normal pace in terms of total quantum in the crucial sowing month of July and the rest of the monsoon season, we don’t foresee any problem, agriculturally speaking,” Mr Yadav added.

The only delay, in the Met terms, in the arrival of monsoon was in east UP and Bihar, he said. On June 25, when the monsoon was at its weakest, the IMD had forecast that rainfall would be 102% of the long-term average for the entire country.

On Sunday, the IMD had forecast that the monsoon could cover Delhi and the entire north anytime within the next four days. By late Sunday night, the monsoon covered most parts of Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and the entire Punjab-Haryana region.

The rapid advance of the summer monsoon sparked off immediate optimism in the government over a bumper production this summer. Jettisoning earlier caution over keeping overt optimism at bay until mid July, food and farm minister Sharad Pawar today said that the area under kharif crops such as paddy, oilseeds and pulses is likely to be higher than that in the last two years.