Monsoon may not withdraw this week: climate centre head

NEW DELHI: India's monsoon may not start withdrawing this week, a top forecaster said on Tuesday, raising the risk of floods in some areas and further delays to soybean and cotton harvesting.

"The monsoon withdrawal appears unlikely this week," D. Sivananda Pai, director at the Pune-based National Climate Centre, which is part of the India Meteorological Department, told Reuters.

India's weather office said last week it expects the withdrawal of the June-September rains towards the end of this month. The monsoon usually starts retreating from parts of northern and western India on Sept. 1.

Unusually heavy rains over northern India flooded villages, leaving more than half-a-million people homeless and submerging crops in a key sugar producing region.