The southwest monsoon has been vigorous over east Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and active over Vidarbha, Odisha and south interior Karnataka, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday, adding that rain deficiency from a benchmark average has now come down to 27% from 34% last Friday.
The department has predicted heavy rain over West Bengal, west Madhya Pradesh, Assam, east Rajasthan, Saur-ashtra and Kutch, Gujarat region, Konkan and Goa and coastal and south interior Karnataka in the next two days.
Meanwhile, private weather forecaster Skymet said monsoon rains are expected on Wednesday across Vidarbha and Marathwada, which will shift further and come closer to the coastal parts of Maharashtra. The rain deficit is now estimated at 26% for South Peninsular, 36% for Northwest India and just 22% for East and Northeast. The deficit is calculated against a long-period average of 89 cm.
Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rayalaseema (Andhra Pradesh) and Tamil Nadu have received normal rainfall till now. Only 30% of the country has received normal rainfall while 65% and 5% of regions have received deficit and scanty rainfall, respectively.
Kharif planting improved over the last weeks but was still down by 45% until the end of last week compared with the previous year.
