Since April, the area under drought has been increasing. Below normal rainfall is expected in August
iStock photo for representation Despite above normal rainfall in several parts of the country, at least 25.1 per cent of India is facing drought-like conditions. The situation in some regions is going to worsen in the face of the forecast of a weak monsoon in the coming weeks.
The 25.1 per cent area is under different degrees of drought — ranging from ‘abnormally dry’ to ‘exceptionally dry’, according to data by Drought Early Warning System (DEWS), India’s first real-time drought-monitoring platform run by IIT-Gandhinagar’s Water and Climate Lab.
The area under drought has been seeing an increase — from 22.4 per cent recorded on April 27, 2023, 23.8 per cent on June 26, 2023, 24.4 per cent on July 19, 2023 to 25.1 on July 26, 2023.
Compared to last year during the consecutive period, the dry area saw an increase of 7 percentile (it was 18.1 per cent on July 26, 2022).
The areas gripped by drought mostly are in the eastern states of Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, along with eastern Uttar Pradesh, the north eastern states of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam, some parts of desert areas of Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Many of these areas have recorded deficient rainfall, according to India Meteorological Department data — Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal have had a rainfall deficit of 48 per cent, 46 per cent, and 22 per cent till July 31.
Overall, out of the 25.1 per cent, 6.3 per cent land is under ‘extreme dry’ and ‘exceptional dry’ conditions, 9.8 per cent is under ‘severe’ dry conditions. As much as 19.1 per cent is under ‘moderate’ dry conditions.
The situation could worsen given the forecast of the monsoon entering a weak phase in August.
On July 31, IMD, in its official statement, said rainfall over the country as a whole during the second half (August to September period) of the southwest monsoon season, 2023 is very likely to be normal, but ‘most probably on the negative side of the normal’.
As far as August is concerned, the monthly rainfall over the country as a whole for August 2023 was very likely to be below normal (94 per cent of Long Period Average).
Earlier, different media reports quoted M Rajeevan, former secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, saying that after a long active spell, the southwest monsoon will enter a break during the next two-three weeks.
This means that the month of August will see a lull in rainfall, in the background of the influence of El-Nino on Indian monsoon systems and absence of positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).
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