Come September

The abnormally high rainfall in the final month of the rainy season has added to India's monsoon agony

- AKSHIT SANGOMLA

INDIA'S MONSOON season has a new troubling chapter—September. The month usually gets the least rainfall as the monsoon winds prepare to retreat from the sub-continent. This is also the month when rain-dependent agrarian communities eagerly wait for the harvest. But things are changing. This year, for example, September received 35 per cent excess rainfall, while July and August, the two wettest monsoon months, remained drier than usual.

September on an average accounts for 19 per cent of the 880 mm rainfall that the country receives during the entire monsoon season. In 2021, the month accounted for almost 26 per cent of the total rainfall.

In 2020, too, rainfall was above normal at 177 mm in September, while in 2019 the month saw 52 per cent excess rainfall.