India monsoon advances; condition positive for 2-3 days

Mumbai - India's monsoon advanced further Monday--after a brief pause last week because of Cyclone Phet--and is likely to cover more parts of the southern states in the next two to three days as conditions had turned more favorable, a senior weather official said.

The southwest monsoon had reached the Indian coast a day earlier than usual on May 31 and covered the southern state of Kerala and parts of neighboring Tamil Nadu before Cyclone Phet over the Arabian Sea halted the rains' progress.

"The monsoon has advanced today into most parts of coastal Karnataka and some more parts of south interior Karnataka," said the official, who declined to be named.

The western parts of India including Goa, Konkan and central Maharashtra, would also be covered in the next two to three days, the official said.

The state-run India Meteorological Department said pre-monsoon showers have also lashed the northwestern state of Rajasthan and the western state of Gujarat.

Kerala and Karnataka are key producers of coffee and spices while Gujarat and Rajasthan are large producers of cotton and oilseeds.

Sowing of summer-season crops, which includes rice, sugarcane, soybean and cotton, starts with the onset of the June-September monsoon. This is a crucial time when most of the rains fall in India, where about 60% of the farmlands are rain-fed.

The worst drought in nearly four decades withered last year's summer-sown farm output, driving inflation.

The weather official said Cyclone Phet has weakened into a depression over Rajasthan and it will further weaken in the next 48 hours, bringing showers over Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

While in its latest update, the weather body said an upper-air cyclonic circulation is likely to form over the Bay of Bengal during the next 48 hours.

"At present, there is no clear indication of any other cyclone, but we are monitoring the situation constantly," said the official.

Last Friday, Ajit Tyagi, director general of the weather body had said the monsoon is likely to cover the entire country by end-July.

Typically, the monsoon covers the entire country by mid-July.

Tyagi had added that India wasn't revising its forecast, which predicted normal monsoon rains this year, despite Cyclone Phet and late last month's Cyclone Laila that lashed India's eastern coast.

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