Thirty one out of a total of 43 districts of Punjab and Haryana have received deficit rainfall during the monsoon rainfall till August.
Ferozepur, Mansa in Punjab and Rohtak in Haryana are badly hit due to poor monsoon rainfall till now, according to the Chandigarh Meteorological Department.
After more than two months into the monsoon, the overall rainfall deficit during monsoon in Haryana stood at 25 percent and in Punjab at 14 percent. Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana has received 697.5 mm rainfall, surplus by one percent against the normal.
Every year, the monsoon season begins with the onset of rains in June and ends in September. This year, the monsoon had reached Punjab, Haryana and their joint capital Chandigarh on June 28.
According to the local Met Department, Haryana has received 286.6 mm rains against the normal monsoon rainfall of 380.3 mm till August. The neighboring Punjab has recorded 344.4 mm rainfall against the normal of 400.7 mm rains.
Surender Pal, Director Meteorological Department said that rainfall deficit is expected to reduce in some parts of the region in September.
“Till August, both Punjab and Haryana have witnessed deficit rainfall. Some districts of both the states have witnessed high rainfall deficit,” he said.
The districts with highly deficient rainfall in Punjab are Ferozepur (74 percent), Mansa (59 percent), Tarn Taran (92 percent), Amritsar (44 percent),Bhatinda (40 percent), Kapurthala (39 percent) and Jalandhar (36 percent).
In Haryana, monsoon rainfall deficit was 53 percent in Rohtak, 50 percent each in districts of Panchkula, Fatehabad and Sonipat, 46 percent in Panipat, 45 percent in Hisar, 43 percent in Bhiwani and 33 percent in Ambala.
Other districts in the two states have recorded more than 10 percent rain deficit.
However, rainfall surplus was recorded in Punjab’s Barnala (34 percent surplus), Ropar (31 percent), Gurdaspur (19 percent), Faridkot (11 percent) while in Haryana, 18 percent surplus rainfall was recorded in Karnal.
Earlier, the Met Department had forecast that monsoon rainfall is likely to be normal this year.
last year, the monsoon’s arrival in Punjab and Haryana had been delayed by over a week and it was only around July 12 that it had fully covered all parts of the two states. Haryana and Punjab had recorded a rain deficit of minus 25 and minus 21 respectively during last year’s monsoon.