By Prarthana Mitra
The South West monsoons hit the southern coasts of Kerala on Tuesday, according to some reports, in the earliest start to the rains that the subcontinent has seen since 2011.
Skymet, the country’s only private weather forecaster, had reported that monsoon will hit Keralas coast on Monday. Although the official date for the arrival of the monsoon in the country is June 1, an early onset had been expected and predicted by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD a few weeks earlier. Now that it has arrived three days earlier than scheduled, the whole country awaits a bountiful harvest which could provide a much-needed boost to Indian agriculture.
IMD has forecasted squalls in parts of Lakshadweep, Kerala and Tamil Nadu over the next few weeks, while a swelter is likely to persist in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh and Delhi.
Heres why you should care
It is no surprise that the Indian economy is heavily dependent on crop-nourishing rains. Touted as the fastest growing economy in the world, and the third largest in Asia, the monsoons are often considered to be its lifeblood. Our $2 trillion economy still depends largely on agriculture, which in turn sustains the agrarian classes including farmers and the crop market.
The country is expected to receive an average amount of rainfall this year. In the next four months, Indian farmers will receive 70% of the rains that water farms and recharge reservoirs and aquifers. Typically, it takes the monsoon more than a month-and-half to cover the entire country.
According to the Indian Express, over 30 people were killed on Tuesday after thunderstorms struck parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Heavy rain is expected to hit parts of Kerala as the Southwest Monsoon further advances inwards. Fishermen have been advised not to venture out to sea along coasts of Kerala and Karnataka over the next few days.
Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius