A quarter of districts still rainfall deficient
The pattern in the average rainfall over India also glosses over the wide variation seen across states. While India has a 0.1% deficit, among states, cumulative rainfall’s departure from LPA varies from a 33.7% surplus in Delhi to a 60.6% deficit in Ladakh. A total of five states and UTS have received an excess, five have received deficient, and the rest have had normal rainfall. The excess regions are Delhi, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, and Andhra Pradesh. The deficient ones are Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Manipur, and Ladakh. To be sure, among smaller states or districts, the current distribution of excess, normal, and deficient units can possibly change in the next two weeks. Gujarat and Odisha were deficient on August 31, but have now moved to the normal range, having received 45% and 31% of their respective cumulative rainfall until September 18 after August 31. Similarly, Delhi was in the normal range on August 31, but is now in excess. It has received 27% of cumulative rainfall until September 18 after August 31. At the district level, the number of deficient districts has decreased this month. However, around 1/4th of districts remain deficient, data shows. Of the 614 of India’s districts (Delhi’s districts merged as one) from 2011 census for which this analysis is possible, 196 were found deficient, 278 were normal, and 140 had received excess rain until August 31. On Sept 18, there were 140 deficient districts, 324 normal districts, and 150 excess districts.
Large deficient (-99% to -60%) Deficient (-59% to -20%) Normal (-19% to 19%)
Excess (20% to 59%)
Large excess (60% to 99%) Large excess (200% or more) Data not enough for calculation