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Assessment of Drought Severity in Various Regions of Jharkhand State of India

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Author Affiliations

  • 1Department of Applied Mathematics,BIT, Mesra, Ranchi- 835215, Jharkhand, INDIA
  • 2 Deptt. of Environmental Sciences, C.U.J., Brambe, Ranchi-835205, Jharkhand, INDIA

Int. Res. J. Environment Sci., Volume 3, Issue (2), Pages 8-14, February,22 (2014)

Abstract

Drought originates from the deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time, resulting in a water shortage for some activity, group, or environmental sector. Drought affects virtually all climatic regions and more than one half of the earth is susceptible to drought each year. In India, around 68 percent of the country’s area is prone to drought in varying degrees. There are 14 districts in the state of Jharkhand covering 100 blocks with an area of 34843 sq km (43.7 percent of the state area) which are covered under Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP) implemented by Government of India. In rain fed agriculture scenario, which exist in the Jharkhand state of India, the rainfall occurrence is the prime deciding factor in evaluating the crop yields. Variability in the rainfall occurrence in the state primarily results due to interaction of various climatic parameters resulting in normal or erratic rainfall. Many parts of the state experiences agricultural drought like conditions during Kharif (monsoon) season. There are many indices for the evaluation of drought. In the present study drought severity assessment in various regions of Jharkhand state was attempted based on computation of select drought indices viz; Rainfall Anomaly Index (RAI), Aridity Index (Ia) and Departure Index (DI). Drought indices revealed that overall drought proneness is apparently high in Daltonganj and Chaibasa, although both of them have mild droughts in majority of the years. On the contrary in terms of moderate droughts, Dumka has the highest severity followed by Daltonganj, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad whereas Chaibasa and Ranchi has the least percentage.

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