Monsoon picking up, no need to be 'alarmist': Government

Monsoon deficit has come down to 31-32 per cent with rains picking up in July across the country giving relief to farmers, Government said today asserting that there is "no reason to be unnecessarily alarmist".

"The monsoon deficit has come down by 12 per cent and the overall deficit stands at around 31 per cent. This will bring in much needed relief to the farmers and solve the water issues," said Laxman Singh Rathore, Director General of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

A government release quoted the Minister of State for Earth Science Jitendra Singh as saying that there has been significant increase in the monsoon during the last one week beginning from 13th July, and the seven days between last Sunday and this Sunday have recorded 11 percent increase in the monsoon country-wide. Singh today visited Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) at "Mausam" Bhavan here to have a personal assessment of the monsoon data recorded over the last six weeks.

"After scientific analysis of the data, he observed that there was a note of optimism for the entire nation because while during the month of June and first two weeks of July, the monsoon was deficient by 43 percent, in the week beginning July 13, 2014, the deficiency was only 32 percent, thus, recording an improvement of 11 percent in the monsoon level," the statement said.

It said that after interacting with scientists and weather experts at the IMD, Singh concluded that the forecast for next two weeks is also good, particularly in Central India and coastal regions of South India . "There is, therefore, no reason to be unnecessarily alarmist on the issue of monsoon," Singh said. He added that from August one onwards the meteorological predictions indicate active rainfall in the country.

MoS for S&T (I/C), Dr. Jitendra Singh visiting the Satellite Monitoring Division at Indian Meteorological Department. pic.twitter.com/AhBr1MvLDn

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The monsoon covered the entire country on July 17. Over all the country received 241mm of rainfall as compared to normal precipitation of 347.7mm.

Central and North-west India have been receiving deficient rainfall, but even in these parts the monsoon has been making progress, IMD said.

The monsoon is expected to remain good for the next two weeks in north, central, southern peninsula and eastern India, Rathore said. However, parts of north-western India, which includes western Rajasthan and Kutch region, may still receive weak rainfall.

The cyclonic circulation developing over north-east Bay of Bengal is likely to become a low pressure area within 24 hours, Skymet, a private forecasting agency, said. In the next 24 to 48 hours, the weather system will bring in widespread good monsoon rains over Telangana, Chhattisgarh, east Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha, it said.

The rain belt will gradually shift to bring rest of Madhya Pradesh and adjoining Maharashtra under its purview. By July 22 and 23, a fresh weather system will bring rains over Gangetic West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, it said.

The entire west coast, particularly Konkan and Gujarat, would also receive good rainfall as the monsoon trough was running from Gujarat coast to Kerala coast, it added.

The Union Minister also held a video conference meeting with the Weather Forecast Divisions in Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and Guwahati, and obtained observations from these centres, which he correlated with the observations at the main Centre in Delhi. Singh later also paid a visit to the Satellite Monitoring Division (SMD) and said it is a matter of pride for this Department that it could actually forecast inclement and adverse weather in Uttarakhand from 16th to 20th July, 2014, following which the organizers of the ongoing Badrinath Yatra took proper precautions and succeeded in avoiding any unfortunate accidents as was witnessed during last year.

Singh said that in the days to come satellite monitoring will not only be able to pick up the areas rocked by earthquake, but also specific area damaged or affected.