Punjab and Haryana, the two leading agrarian states of the country, have witnessed rain deficit during the south-west monsoon, as the uneven distribution of rains weighed down the overall performance.

29 out of 44 districts of the two states have received scanty rainfall during the June-to-September south-west monsoon.

As the season bids adieu to the region, Punjab and Haryana have recorded a rain deficit of 17 and 14 percent respectively. Chandigarh—the joint capital city of the two states has seen a shortfall of just six percent as compared to the normal monsoon rainfall.

According to the Chandigarh Meteorological Department, despite some districts in Punjab and Haryana recording excessive rain during the monsoon period, more than 50 percent of the districts of both the states are still parched.

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 Chandigarh on June 26.

The districts with high deficient rainfall in Punjab are Hoshiarpur (61 percent), Mansa (55 percent), Tarn Taran (47 percent), Nawanshahar (44 percent), Jalandhar (39 percent), Ludhiana (31 percent), Amritsar (25 percent), Moga (23 percent) among others.

In Haryana, the monsoon rainfall deficit was 65 percent in Panchkula, 57 percent in Rohtak, 43 percent in Bhiwani, 37 percent in Mahendragarh, 36 percent in Ambala, 29 percent in Jind, 26 percent in Rewari, 25 percent in Palwal, 23 percent in Panipat among other districts.

Meanwhile, rainfall surplus was recorded in Haryana’s Sirsa (43 percent), Kaithal (36 percent), Karnal (29 percent) while in Punjab, Faridkot district recorded the highest rainfall surplus of 75 percent and Muktsar recorded 34 percent excessive rainfall.

Surender Pal, Director Chandigarh Met Department while talking to The Pioneer said, “The south-west monsoon has withdrawn from some parts of Punjab and conditions are favorable for its further withdrawal from across the region in next 48 hours.”

“The rainfall in the region has witnessed a slight deviation from the normal value this year. The monsoon was marked by skewed distribution of rainfall across the region and many districts have recorded a huge rain deficit due to this,” he added.

On the whole, Haryana has received 376.1 mm rainfall against the normal monsoon rains of 438.6 mm. Punjab has recorded 387.6 mm rains recording a departure of 17 percent from the normal rains of 466.4 mm during monsoon, as per the data of Met Department from June –September 29.

Chandigarh has received 791.1 mm rains against the normal value of 845.7 mm. As far as monthly distribution of rainfall is concerned, Chandigarh received a high rainfall of 373.1 mm in August, 277.2 mm in July and 131.1 mm in June.

During monsoon, Punjab received highest rainfall of 189.4 mm in July, 130 mm in August and 46.1 mm rainfall in June while Haryana recorded 166.1 mm rains in July, 137.4 mm in August and 47.7 mm in June.

Last year, Haryana had received 255.2 mm of rainfall (June-September) against its average monsoon rainfall recording an overall deficit of 42 percent and Punjab had received 433.6 mm rainfall recording a deviation of minus seven percent.