Monsoon starts withdrawing from west Rajasthan, marking its retreat from the country

NEW DELHI: Monsoon on Monday started withdrawing from some parts of West Rajasthan and Kutch, marking the beginning of its retreat from the country, against its normal date of withdrawal on Sept 17, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
“The line of withdrawal of southwest monsoon passes through Anupgarh, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Bhuj and Dwarka,” said the Met department, underlining that the conditions are favourable for its further withdrawal from some more parts of west Rajasthan and adjoining areas of Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat during the next 24 hours.
The late withdrawal of the monsoon this year is the 14th consecutive delayed retreat of the seasonal rains. Last year, the withdrawal started on Sept 25. The monsoon season technically ends on Sept 30, but the withdrawal process continues till October 15.
As predicted by the IMD, the overall four-month monsoon season (June-Sept) is expected to end with ‘above normal’ rainfall. It means the monsoon is expected to be in the category of 105-110% of the long period average (LPA). The cumulative (June 1-Sept 23) rainfall as on Monday recorded over 5% more than the ‘normal’ rainfall of the period, even as the first month of the season (June) recorded 11% deficit.
The monsoon onset over Kerala and most parts of northeast happened this year simultaneously on May 30 against its normal date of June 1 and June 5 respectively, and covered the entire country by July 2 - six days before its normal date (July 8) of covering the entire India.
Normally, monsoon covers the entire India in 38 days (June 1-July 8). It covered the entire country this year in 34 days despite its sluggish progress in June. It was the third consecutive year when the monsoon covered the entire country by July 2.
Besides farming activities, water and hydro-power management also depends on the timing of onset, duration of coverage and withdrawal of the monsoon. Backed by ‘above normal’ rainfall, the acreage of Kharif (summer sown) crops in the country has already exceeded the normal (average of last five years) acreage of the sowing season with the sown area under paddy, coarse cereals, oilseeds and sugarcane reporting higher coverage signalling good output in the 2024-25 crop year.
Sowing data, released by the agriculture ministry on Monday, shows that the overall sown area as on last Friday stand at around 1105 lakh hectares which was 8 lakh hectares more than the ‘normal’ acreage and 16 lakh hectares (1.5%) more than the overall acreage of Kharif crops during the corresponding period last year.