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NEW DELHI: The four-month summer (southwest) monsoon season ended on Tuesday, with India reporting 8% more than normal rainfall. East and North-East India, however, reported a huge deficit of more than 20% and witnessed the second-lowest rainfall in the rainy season since 1901. The country as a whole, on the other hand, saw the fifth-highest rainfall this year since 2001 and the 38th highest since 1901.“Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya saw deficient rainfall in three of the four monsoon months. The lowest rainfall in the monsoon season in the region was recorded in 2013,” IMD chief Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said. “Rainfall over east and northeast India has been deficient in many years in recent times. There is a trend that shows that rainfall over this region has been decreasing since 2020.”Though the ‘above normal’ monsoon season was marked by many disasters, including cloudbursts, landslides, floods and mudslides, especially in northwest India, the good rains helped farmers increase their acreage of Kharif (summer sown) crops over not just last year but also over the normal sown area of the season.The agriculture ministry’s latest data shows the country reported an overall acreage of 1,120 lakh hectares this Kharif season, which is 24 lakh hectares more than the normal acreage. This raises hopes of record foodgrain output during the 2025-26 crop year.The season technically ended on Tuesday, but certain parts of the country will continue to report rainfall for a couple of more weeks, till the complete withdrawal of the monsoon in mid-Oct. The delay may delay the onset of northeast (winter) monsoon in Peninsular India.Mohapatra said most parts of the country are expected to receive above-normal rainfall during the post-summer monsoon season (Oct to Dec). In Oct alone, the country is expected to receive 15% more than normal rainfall. The forecast suggests the winter monsoon (Oct to Dec) rainfall over south Peninsular India, is most likely to be above normal. The IMD chief said maximum (day) temperatures in Oct are likely to be above normal in most parts of east-northeast and northwest, whereas “normal to below-normal” maximum temperatures are expected in other regions of India during the month.
