South-West monsoon withdraws, worst since 2009

Hyderabad, Oct 1: With the withdrawal of the South-West monsoon this year, weather experts have termed it as the worst since 2009. This season, there was an average shortfall of 14 per cent rain across the country stoking the fear of a climatic drought across at least 30 per cent of the geographical area of India. According to India Meteorological Department, there was normal rainfall in at least 55 per cent of the country. From June 1 to September 30, India received 760.6 mm of rainfall. this is against the normal average of 887.5 mm, IMD said. Though technically the southwest monsoon came to an end on Wednesday, there could be showers for another week to 10 days across the country. However, the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon is complete over parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. As a result of poor show by South-West monsoon, experts project a drop in foodgrain production by 1.8 per cent to 124.05 million tonnes in the kharif (summer) season. Last kharif, the output was 126.31 mt.