A week of subdued rainfall activity has marginally deepened the seasonal rainfall deficit in the country, indicating beginning of the withdrawal of the monsoon season.

“Southwest monsoon is likely to withdraw from extreme northwest India in the (forthcoming) week,” the Met Department said in its weekly weather outlook on Thursday.

The week ending September 16 saw rainfall 41 per cent below normal, widening the overall deficit this monsoon from 20 per cent below normal to 21 per cent.

However, the week also brought some positive news. With Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand witnessing above-normal rainfall during the week, the overall rainfall deficit in Northwest India improved from -34 per cent to -32 per cent.

Central India though saw less rainfall, increasing its overall deficit from 15 per cent below normal to 17 per cent.

While monsoon will withdraw from extreme northwestern parts of the country, the Met Department has predicted scattered or fairly widespread rainfall activity over the Northeast and south peninsular India in the coming week. The east coast will see a fair bit of rain, while rainfall activity over central and northwest India will be subdued.

As on September 16, 57 per cent of the districts in the country categorise as having received below-normal rainfall since the monsoon began on June 1. In other words, 21 states and Union territories remain rainfall-deficient while 13 have seen normal rainfall. Only one state has had excess rainfall so far.

The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on drought, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, met on Thursday to discuss the drought situation and the action taken to deal with the situation. It is learnt to have drawn satisfaction from the improvement in the situation since it met last, when the overall rain deficit stood at 26 per cent below normal, as against 21 per cent below normal now. As of now, 299 districts — or about 50 per cent of the country — have been declared drought-hit.