Here is your paragraph on the peculiarities and significance of Indian climate!
Indian climate is primarily dominated by south- west monsoons and is peculiar in many ways.
The extremes of temperature, rainfall and humidity are well known. The rainfall from the monsoon winds is variable and quite undependable. The monsoon may advance much before its due date or may be considerably delayed.
Further, the amount of rainfall may be more than the normal or there may be deficient rains. Some parts of the country may be facing the fury of floods due to heavy rains while the other parts may be reeling under drought conditions due to scanty rainfall. The variability of rainfall in time and space plays havoc with agriculture which shatters the very foundation of economy in a predominantly agricultural country like India.
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It is often said that Indian budget is a gamble in the monsoon. In fact monsoon is the pivot upon which the whole economic life of India swings. Nowhere else in the world, so many people over so vast a land are as intimately wedded to the monsoon regime as they do in India. Another peculiar feature of the Indian rainfall is that it is concentrated in a few months of the year.
Of the country’s total rainfall, about 75 per cent is received in the monsoon months from June to September, 13 per cent comes in the post monsoon season, 10 per cent in the pre-monsoon season and the remaining 2 per cent in the winter season.
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At the same time, it is worth mentioning that one part or the other gets rainfall in each month of the year i.e. in no month of the year the whole of India is completely dry. In January and February, north-west India gets rainfall from the western disturbances. In March thunderstorms start influencing Assam and West Bengal and give occasional pours till the arrival of the monsoons in June. Rainfall by south-west monsoons continues till the withdrawal of monsoons. Coromandel Coast receives rainfall by the north-east monsoons in the winter season.
It has already been mentioned that the distribution of rainfall in India is very uneven. According to the calculations made by census of India in 1951 only 11 per cent area of India gets over 200 cms. of annual rainfall while about one third of the total land area of the country has to content with a mere 75 cm annually. Table 5.2 gives a real distribution of rainfall in India.
Table 5.2
Distribution of Rainfall:
| Percentage of the total land area | Amount of annual rainfall (cm) |
| 11 | Above 200 |
| 21 | 125 to 200 |
| 37 | 75 to 125 |
| 24 | 35 to 75 |
| 7 | Below 35 |
Indian rainfall is basically torrential in nature. Much of the rainfall is received in 3-4 months of the rainy season.
Even in this season the actual rainy days are 40-45 only. The heaviest downpours occur in association with cyclones which originate in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. A rainfall of 50-60 cm in a rainy day is not uncommon. The highest record, as already mentioned, is 103.6 cm in 24 hours at Cherrapunji. This place gets rainfall of 1,102 cm in 180 rainy days.
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Sri Ganganagar receives 12 cm of rain in 10-12 rainy days. Hence the statement, it pours, it never rains in India, is true whether it be Meghalaya or Rajasthan. The sudden heavy downpour results in devastating floods and excessive soil erosion.
Another very important aspect of Indian rainfall is that it is largely controlled by orography. The effects of the Himalayas and the Western Ghats on the amount and distribution of rainfall and the inability of the Aravalis to cause rainfall have already been discussed. The whole of India would have been a vast desert but for the size and lie of the Himalayas and the Western Ghats. Therefore, we can easily say that the rainfall over the country is primarily orographic.