New Delhi, June 29: Apart of the plentiful rainfall in June, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has estimated that less than normal rainfall over next two months and instructed the agriculture ministry to keep ready for an emergency plan.

The director general of IMD, Laxman Singh Rathore said that, “rainfall could be deficient by 8-10% in next two months respectively. June has received a good amount of rainfall and it was also planting season, but in July and August month, there may not have good rainfall as June, so there should be a contingency plan in next two months”.

“There is, however, some respite as the pre-monsoon showers have helped fill up reservoirs to some extent. There was good rainfall in June, which is a crucial month for sowing,” he added.

Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency, has estimated that “above normal rain fall in July i.e. 104%, normal rain fall in August month as 99% and 96% rain fall in September. Less than 90% of long period average (LPA) is considered as ‘deficient’ rain fall, 90-96% is considered as below normal, 96-104% is normal and 104 to 110 % is above normal and anything over it is excess.

IMD predicted that, this year has deficient rainfall i.e. 88%, many parts especially north-west India may observe deficient monsoon. June received 28% more than normal rainfall.