21% of India dry, worse than in last two monsoons: IMD data

The monsoon this year has left 21.38% area of the country moderately to extremely dry, India Meteorological Department (IMD) data at the end of the four month season shows.

The department’s Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI), an index to monitor drought, showed that the dry conditions this monsoon have been worse than in 2016 and 2017.

This year, 134 districts , the maximum, reported moderately to extremely dry conditions.


This index, negative for drought and positive for wet conditions, showed that 229 districts reported “mildly dry” conditions, a staggering 43.51% this monsoon.

Around 17.78% area of the country reported moderately to extremely dry conditions last year, while 12.28% area reported such conditions in 2016, Pulak Guhathakurta, head of Climate Data Management and Services at IMD, Pune, told TOI.

“This monsoon, the percentage area showing dry conditions has gone up to over 21%, with more than 5.45% area witnessing severely dry conditions and 2.08% reporting extremely dry conditions during the season,” Guhathakurta said.

The latest SPI report released by IMD said the monsoon showed extremely, severely and moderately dry conditions over most districts of Lakshadweep, many districts of Arunachal Pradesh, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Jharkhand, Bihar, Rayalseema and north interior Karnataka.

One or two districts of Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha also experienced similar dry conditions this season. Moderately to severely dry districts in Maharashtra included Satara, Solapur, Aurangabad, Jalna and Buldhana. September seemed worse for Maharashtra as extremely to moderately dry conditions prevailed over most districts of Konkan, Maharashtra, Marathwada and other regions of the country.

Maharashtra reported a -1.42 on the index in September this year which is “severely dry”.

Among the other states, the worst performer this monsoon was Lakshadweep with extremely dry conditions, followed by states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Meghalaya, Tripura and Jharkhand where moderately dry conditions prevailed.

Guhathakurta said the most affected regions this season were from the northeast, some districts in Marathwada, Maharashtra, Vidarbha, Gujarat, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, south interior Karnataka and Kerala.