The remaining parts of north, eastem India, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh,
the Tarai region and hills of Uttarakhand receive rainfall between 100 to 200 cm.
the southern and western Uttar Pradesh, northern and western Madhya Pradesh, eastern
Maharashtra and Gujarat, and northern Andhra Pradesh experience rainfall between 50 and 100
cm.
Rajasthan, western Gujarat, southern Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka plateau, Tamil Nadu, plains of
Haryana., Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir receive less than 60 cm of rainfall.
The lowest rainfall is recorded in the Thar desert along the border of Pakistan, and the Ladakh
region of Jammu and Kashmir "state
the highest variability is found in the areas where the average annual rainfall is the lowest. For
example, the desert areas of Banner, Ganganagar, JaisaJmer,Jodhpur, etc. have less than 20 cm of
average annual rainfall. In these areas the variability of rainfall is around 60 per cent.
the areas where the average annual rainfall is over 200 cm (Mawsynram and Cherrapunji,
Meghalaya Plateau), the annual variability of rainfall is less than l0 per cent.
The Western slopes of Western Ghats, the Lesser Himalayas, the Shiwaliks and the Tarai belt
also record between 100-200 cm of average annual rainfall. The variability of rainfall in these
regions is around 10 to 20 per cent.
an inverse relationship between the average annual rainfall and variability in rainfall.
The variability of rainfall has a significant role in the agricultural operations and other economic
activities of the country.
The areas showing high variability of rainfall have chronic deficiency of water.
Such regions are highly prone to droughts, floods and famines, while the areas with high average
annual rainfall are less affected by droughts; though flood is a regular feature in flood prone
areas.
CLIMATIC REGIONS OF INDIA
India is often referred to as a country with tropical monsoon type of climate.
The large size of India, its latitudinal extent, the presence of the Himalayas in the north, and the
Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal in the south have resulted in great variations in the
distribution of temperature and precipitation in the subcontinent of India.
A number of atterr1pts have been made by climatologists, geographers and experts of agriculture
to divide India into climatic regions.
While some of these classifications have been suggested for world climates, others are
exclusively applied to Indian conditions.
Tropical India
1. Region of Very heavy Rainfall
stretches over Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram.
The average annual rainfall in these areas is over 200 cm.
The heaviest rainfall in the world is recorded in this region at the stations of Mawsynram and
Cherrapunji.
Over 90 per cent of the average annual rainfall is recorded during the season of the South-West
Monsoon.
