Guwahati/Agartala, Oct 17 (IANS) The four-month-long southwest Monsoon has withdrawn from the entire northeast India on Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The IMD, on September 30, had said that rainfall over the country, as a whole, during the monsoon season (June to September), was 94 per cent of its long period average.
According to the Meteorological Department, of the four IMD’s regions across the country, the northeast region has recorded 82 per cent rain in this year’s monsoon period – June to September.
An IMD official said that normally the four-month long Southwest monsoon departs from the northeast 10 days or two weeks after the withdrawal of the monsoon from most parts of the country.
According to the IMD data, Assam, Manipur, and Mizoram, till September 30, witnessed deficient rainfall while five other northeastern states — Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Tripura — have experienced normal rains since the southwest monsoon began in June.
There are four meteorological sub-divisions in the northeastern region — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam-Meghalaya, Nagaland-Manipur-Mizoram-Tripura, and Sikkim & parts of West Bengal.
In Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura, there is 12 per cent to 16 per cent deficient rainfall while in Sikkim, 5 per cent excess rains have been recorded till September 30 since June. As per the IMD norms, up to 19 per cent deficient or excess rainfall is categorised as normal.
The IMD data revealed that till September 30, in Manipur, there is 46 per cent deficiency, in Mizoram, the shortage of rainfall has been recorded at 28 per cent, while Assam recorded 20 per cent deficit monsoon rains since June.
According to IMD data, from October 1 to Tuesday (September 17), Manipur recorded a large deficit (61 per cent) while Nagaland (40 per cent), Mizoram (41 per cent) and Tripura (30 per cent) recorded shortage of rainfall compared to the normal rainfall during this period. Arunachal Pradesh (29 per cent) and Assam (32 per cent) recorded excess rainfall and Sikkim (159 per cent) registered large excess rainfall during the past 17 days (October 1-17).
Over 40 people including many soldiers were killed, about 100 people remained missing, and around one lakhs people affected while huge destruction was caused after a sudden cloudburst over the Lhonak Lake in north Sikkim on October 4.
–IANS
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