Poor monsoon will hit North-West India hard

There is bad news for North-West India: these states are likely to be the worst affected in this year’s monsoon, and are expected to get only 81 per cent of the average rainfall. The Indian Meteorological Department’s forecast released Wednesday says major states like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and the western part of Uttar Pradesh will get “deficient rainfall”, which in turn might adversely affect agricultural activities.

The forecast was made public on Wednesday by the IMD, which also predicted a “below normal” monsoon in the country as a whole this year. In April, it had predicted a “near normal” monsoon.

IMD officials did not categorically accept the “El Nino” factor as a direct cause for lower rainfall levels, claiming that the correlation between the two was yet to be conclusively established.

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