Everything you need to know about Monsoon rains in India

There's much more to monsoon rains than the romance of pitter-patter, colourful parasols, puddled roads, mosquitoes, clogged drains and endless traffic jams. The summer rains are critical for keeping the economic engine chugging along in India. Let’s take a look…

In a normal year, this is broadly how the June-September rains or the south-west monsoon arrives across the country, which besides bringing relief from a blazing summer, serves as the lifeblood for the critical kharif crop.

Southern Peninsula | Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu. Normal date of monsoon’s onset: June 1 in Kerala | Rain-dependent area: 90% | Monsoon dependent critical crops: Maize, jowar and bajra, pulses, oilseeds and rice

East and North-East | Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand | Normal date of monsoon’s onset: June 1 in Tripura and Assam | Rain-dependent area: 95% | Monsoon dependent critical crops: Rice, maize, jowar and bajra, pulses, oilseeds

Central/West central | Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha | Normal date of monsoon’s onset: June 10 in Maharashtra | Rain-dependent area: 70% | Monsoon dependent critical crops: Maize, jowar and bajra, pulses, oilseeds and rice

North and North West | Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand | Normal date of monsoon’s onset: June 29, in Delhi | Rain-dependent area: 20% | Monsoon dependent critical crops: Maize, Jowar and Bajara, Pulses, Oilseeds and rice