Mumbai: After its earliest onset in 16 years, the progress of southwest monsoon has been stalled.
The annual monsoon, which delivers nearly 70% of the rain that India needs for its agriculture to thrive, and aquifers and reservoirs to be replenished, set in over Kerala on May 24 – a week before normal arrival — and quickly covered southern, northeastern and parts of western India.
However, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), monsoon has stalled since May 28-29.
Northeast India experienced relentless rain for the last few days, but temperatures and humidity have risen in several parts of the country. The question everyone is asking is when will the rains be back?
Reuters quoted senior weather bureau officials as saying that rainfall over India is likely to remain subdued for over a week. But it is likely to pick up again from June 11.
“Monsoon rainfall will be subdued in the next few days, but from June 11-12, the monsoon will strengthen and start covering the remaining parts of the country,” S D Sanap, scientist with the IMD’s Pune office, said.
A weather system is likely to develop in the Bay of Bengal around June 11, that will strengthen the monsoon and create favourable conditions for its progress in the northern parts of the country, said another weather department official.
Monsoon rains usually start in Kerala around June 1, before spreading to the rest of India by mid-July. The June-September rainfall serve as the lifeblood of farmers, who plant crops such as rice, corn, cotton, soyabeans and sugarcane.
Just as this year’s early arrival of monsoon came as a pleasant surprise and brought cheer to farmers, the sudden halt in rainfall has puzzled them.
“Farmers are holding off on planting soybean, cotton, and other summer crops until there’s more rain. They are waiting for the soil to have enough moisture,” a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house told Reuters.
