Geographical perspective on hydro-meteorological disasters in Himachal Pradesh, India

Climate is the fundamental natural element shaping the earth-system. The global environment has always been changing and climatic extremes in terms of disasters have been manifesting themselves recurrently. Climate has strong bearing on disaster occurrence and induces anomalies like flood, cloudburst, drought and cyclone etc. It is now widely accepted that earth's climate is unexpectedly changing and causing various disasters, the impacts of which are rapidly increasing. Such disastrous climatic manifestations have also become regular features of areas such as Himachal Pradesh. The excess rainfall produce a landscape dotted with cloudburst and flash flood while rainfall deficit causes drought like situations in the state. This study focuses on three major types of meteorological disasters: flood, cloudburst and drought in terms of their occurrence and impacts. The results show that flood and cloudburst are more active in middle Himalayan parts the state while droughts situations, although affect the entire state, are more prominent in the cold desert areas and the hot humid regions. The overall situation reveals that fluctuating rainfall regime produces a unique spectrum of extreme events.