Southwest monsoon withdraws from entire northeast India

The four-month-long Southwest Monsoon has withdrawn from the entire northeast region of India on Monday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said.

Senior IMD official Partha Roy said that the Southwest monsoon has withdrawn from the entire northeastern region, comprising eight states on Monday, a day before the scheduled date of withdrawal of the monsoon.  

“Last year (2023) the Southwest monsoon withdrew from Tripura and other northeastern states on October 17,” Roy, Director of IMD's Tripura unit, told IANS.

As per the IMD’s Southwest monsoon seasonal report, rainfall over the country as a whole during the 2024 southwest monsoon season (June- September) was 108 per cent of its long-period average (LPA).

Thus the seasonal rainfall was above normal (104 per cent of LPA) as per the IMD forecast.

This year seasonal rainfalls over northeast India were 86 per cent of LPA, the report said.

Out of the total of 36 meteorological subdivisions across the country, three subdivisions -- Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh constituted 11 per cent of the total area that received deficient seasonal rainfall.

There are four meteorological sub-divisions in the northeastern region -- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam-Meghalaya, Nagaland-Manipur-Mizoram-Tripura, and Sikkim and parts of West Bengal.

According to the IMD report, from June to September in the East and Northeast India region, actual rainfall was recorded at 1178.7 mm, which is 86 per cent of the 1367.3 mm scheduled normal rainfalls in the region during the monsoon period.

Due to floods and landslides, more than 220 people including women and children died during the monsoon period in Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

Of the 250 deaths in the northeastern states, 110 people died in floods and 11 died in landslides in Assam alone.

At least 39 people lost their lives due to the flood and landslides in Tripura while many people died in the other northeastern states.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has released Rs 855.40 crore to six flood-affected northeastern states as a central share from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and an advance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).

According to a Disaster Management official in Agartala, Assam got the highest flood relief aid of Rs 716 crore, followed by Rs 50 crore to Manipur, Rs 25 crore to Tripura, Rs 23.60 crore to Sikkim, Rs 21.60 crore to Mizoram, and Rs 19.20 crore to Nagaland.

Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) studied and conducted the on-the-spot assessment of the damages to crops, properties and infrastructures in flood-affected Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Manipur.

In addition to financial assistance, the Central government has also provided all logistic assistance, including deployment of requisite NDRF and Army teams and Air Force support to all the flood-affected states.