Assessment of Drought Characteristics over Vindhyan Region through Different Drought Indices

The activities performed over a period of time by human induces circumstances that results in increasing the extreme events that causes severe impact to environment, agriculture, and livelihood relying on. One of the most devastating impacts can be seen as drought. Increased drought frequency with higher magnitude and intensity has severe implication to the water resources availability in the region. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the drought and its characteristics over Vindhyan region in Mirzapur and Sonbhadra district. The average annual rainfall over Vindhyan region is 934.75 mm with a coefficient of variation of 25.83. The rainfall in the region varies from 863.34 mm in Mirzapur district to 1003.26 mm in Sonbhadra district. The variation over Sonbhadra region is less in comparison with Mirzapur district. Identification of drought prone block indicates that in Mirzapur district 10 out of 12 blocks are drought prone whilein Sonbhadra district 3 out of 8 blocks are drought prone. In Vindhyan region there was widespread drought during 1982, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2015, and 2017. Relative departure index (RDI) indicates Chhanvey, Narainpur and Pahari blocks at highest priority with RDI=0.70 in Mirzapur district followed by Ghorawal blocks with RDI = 0.60 in Sonbhadra district. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was adapted to evaluated meteorological drought characteristics. 1 month SPI and 3 month SPI was evaluated for assessing severity, duration, intensity, magnitude and extent of drought over the region. Based on the findings, drought preparedness and mitigation plan may be implemented, which will aid in reducing the influence of drought and its potentially dangerous consequences.