Jharkhand has not received much rainfall till now but the Met office has assured a normal monsoon this year.

According to data shared by the Ranchi Meteorological Centre (RMC), the state received 166.8mm of rainfall till Sunday against a normal of 274.9mm, recording a shortage of 39 per cent.

"But according to the forecast made for four months — from June to September — monsoon in eastern states, including Jharkhand, will be normal this year," informed Abhishek Anand, weather scientist in charge of RMC, adding they consider rainfall as normal when the actual figure is 19 per cent more or even less than the expected rainfall.

Till Sunday, 14 of the total 24 districts of the state recorded less than normal rainfall while 5 others had scanty rainfall with above 60 per cent deficit. Dhanbad recorded maximum shortage of 73 per cent below normal rainfall.

Sahebganj was the only district in the state that got above-normal rainfall with a 29 per cent surplus till Sunday while four others — Deoghar, Godda, Simdega and Garhwa — recorded normal rainfall.

The rainfall scenario, however, has improved since the third week of June when the rain deficit was recorded as over 80 per cent which came down to 56 per cent by June 28.

It came down further to 40 per cent last Thursday and stood at 39 per cent on Sunday.

It was much worse last year and sowing was severely affected. The crop coverage till mid-August last year was the lowest in the previous 5 years.

Eventually, the state government declared that a drought-like situation prevailed in about two-thirds area of the state and also announced an interim relief of Rs 3,500 for each of about 30 lakh farmer families that were badly affected.

"The situation is certainly much better this year," Anand said, explaining the fields were now wet and agricultural activities could be continued.

The present rainfall deficit was also expected to decrease further over the next few days as the Met office predicted on Sunday that certain places across Santhal Pargana, besides Dhanbad and Giridih districts, were expected to experience heavy rainfall for three consecutive days from Tuesday.