Vol. 19 No. 3
Assessment of agricultural drought in the Red Lateritic Zone of West Bengal using Palmer Drought Severity Index
Author(s): A. GHOSAL, A. SAHA AND M. K. NASKAR
Abstract: With an objective to characterize drought conditions in the Red Lateritic Zone of West Bengal, an investigation was undertaken to compute the frequency of different categories of agricultural drought and their temporal dynamics using the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), for the period 1951-2020. For this, gridded data on daily rainfall, minimum temperature and maximum temperature were obtained from IMD Gridded dataset and information on AHC (mm/mm depth; Grid based) was obtained from a FAO developed software named Harmonized World Soil Database. An investigation over the entire study location showed that there is a prolonged drought period in Bankura, Birbhum and Purulia combining MLD/MOD/SD/ED from 1960-1969 and 2006- 2011. Among the districts, Birbhum (5.2%), Purulia (4.39%), Bankura (10.69%) recorded maximum frequency for extreme, severe and moderate drought, respectively. During the entire study period, there was no uniform increasing or decreasing temporal trend of PDSI in this zone, however, some distinct increasing or decreasing spans were identified.
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