Question

The south west monsoon does not give rainfall to which coast

Answer 1

The southwest monsoon does not give rainfall to the Eastern coast of India.

By definition, "monsoon is a seasonal change of wind direction in the region of South and South-East Asia, between May and September, the wind blows from the South-West, and bringing rain (the wet monsoon), between October and April, the direction changes from South-West to North-East (the dry monsoon)."

The South-West monsoon has two branches named the Arabian Sea branch and the Bay of Bengal branch. Usually, the Arabian Sea branch gets a good amount of rainfall during wet monsoon for the following reasons.

• South-West monsoon winds blows perpendicularly to the direction of Western Ghats. Thus the mountains near the coast of the Arabic sea branch act as obstacles to the wind and the moist wind (as it blows over the ocean, captures enough moisture) causes relief rainfall.

But, the Bay of Bengal branch does not get much rainfall due to the reverse cause.

• As the wind comes from the southwest direction, it first comes across western ghats. some part of the wind gets divided and blows parallel to the Bay of Bengal branch.
• Western ghats does not allow the moist air to reach the Eastern ghat.
• Even if it reaches the eastern part, the wind becomes dry.
• As the divided part of wind in the Bay of Bengal branch blows parallel to the coast, it can not cause rain.

Hence, The southwest monsoon does not give rainfall to the Eastern coast.