Northeast India records 28 percent deficit rainfall

AGARTALA/GUWAHATI - The northeastern region, comprising eight states, has recorded deficit rainfall during the current monsoon season and this may affect agricultural production, an official said Sunday.

“During the monsoon (since June 1), the northeastern region on an average has suffered a 28 percent shortfall compared to the normal rainfall,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official told IANS in Agartala.

“Soon after the onset of the monsoon in June, some parts of the northeastern region witnessed excess rainfall but subsequently the precipitation reversed,” he said.

According to the IMD’s regional meteorological centre in Guwahati, the deficit rainfall this monsoon in the northeast is minimum in Assam, where the shortfall recorded is six percent. In contrast, the rainfall deficit is maximum at 49 percent in Meghalaya.

Manipur has recorded 46 percent deficit rainfall followed by Arunachal Pradesh 30 percent, Mizoram 28 percent, Nagaland 27 percent and Tripura 16 percent.

The decline in rainfall has had an adverse effect on agriculture in the region, which has inadequate irrigation facilities.

“Excess rainfall, coupled with floods have damaged crops in some parts of the northeast including Assam, while deficit monsoon rainfall would affect the production of various monsoon crops, including ‘Boro rice’,” an official of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) said in Agartala.

However, met officials said that a low pressure has been created in north Orissa coast, which might lead to rain in many parts of the northeast in the coming week.

“We are hopeful that the deficit of rainfall would be stabilised in the remaining part of the monsoon season ending September,” the ICAR official said.