Agartala/Shillong, July 20 - In India's northeast it has rained a little, but way too little. The weatherman has no pleasant news for states in the region, saying it may be heading for drought that will affect autumn as well as winter crops.

'The rainfall during the current monsoon season in Assam and Meghalaya is scanty (around 50 percent deficit) while in the remaining states - Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh - the rainfall is deficit (roughly a 40 percent shortfall),' said Dilip Saha, director of the Agartala meteorological department.

These states together are called the seven sisters, though strictly speaking, Sikkim is also considered part of the northeast.

Saha told IANS: 'At the moment we are unable to predict whether the rainfall would be normal during the remaining period of the monsoon.' The monsoon period is from June to September in the hilly region and witnesses early flash floods.

The Assam government had last week declared more than half the state - 14 of its 27 districts - as drought-hit, saying agriculture was badly hit due to scanty monsoon rains.

Last month, the Manipur government declared the entire state drought-hit.

A drought-like situation has been declared in Nagaland following a 37.15 percent drop in normal rainfall that has adversely affected the cultivation of paddy and other crops.

'Northeastern India, where the economy is primarily based on agricultural activities, is normally dependent on the southwest monsoon rain as irrigation facilities on an average have been extended to only 40 percent of cultivable area,' said an official of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in Shillong.