Shift in monsoon rainfall pattern in the North Eastern region of India post 1991

Abstract

The indication of climate change, in a given place, is manifested through abnormal changes in climatic behaviour. Rainfall and temperature are the two major factors, which govern the ultimate climatic vulnerability profile of any given location. During the recent times, researchers have reported abnormal changes in the climatic pattern over different parts of world (IPCC, 2007). Increasing occurrences of drought and floods destroying on-field crops have become common news in otherwise climatically stable regions. Being a very high rainfall region, rainfall received during monsoon season could fulfill the water demands of the major crops. However, like the rest of the world, this region has also experiencing fast change in climatic behaviours as a result of irrational human interventions on natural resources (MoEF, 2010), leading to very existence of sustainable livelihood in this ecologically sensitive region. Further, due to rain dependence and resource poorness, the farmers of this region are least flexible to go for any comprehensive adaptive measure to tackle the menace of extreme climatic events. Accurate analysis and interpretation of climatic data often helps to formulate plans as well as to prioritize the intended interventions, so that the limited available resources can be utilized very rationally to tackle the menace of climatic exigencies. Hence, to strengthen and supplement the existing base of information, this study was taken up to identify the regions, which needs preferential attention in terms of the degree of climatic adversities faced during the recent times.