Abstract:
Water resources management in arid and semiarid
regions is a hydrologically challenging proposition for
the decision makers and planners as they are more susceptible
to drought. The Bundelkhand region is under the limelight
due to continuous droughts resulting in acute water scarcity
leading to large-scale out-migration of people. The effective
drought index (EDI) developed by Byun and Wilhite, (1999)
based on the concept of effective precipitation with a timedependent
reduction function has been used to analyze the
meteorological drought characteristics in the Bundelkhand.
The average drought frequency varies between 1 in 3 years
and 1 in 5 years. The average drought intensity in Sagar
district (Madhya Pradesh) varies between -0.93 at Banda and
-1.15 at Khurai whereas in Jhansi district (Uttar Pradesh) it
varies between -0.73 at Garotha and -1.43 at Pachwara. The
spatio-temporal variation of drought has been studied using
ILWIS 3.6. It has been observed the area under mild drought
increased from 2% (mild drought) in July 2007 to 81% (mild
drought) and 2% (moderate drought) in August 2007 due to
the deficient rainfall. The drought situation further worsened
in September 2007 with almost the entire Bundelkhand
reeling under drought with 77.5% (mild drought), 14.3%
(moderate drought), and 0.1% (severe drought). The spatiotemporal
analysis of EDI based drought characteristics can
be used effectively for drought monitoring to identify the
problematic areas within the region, so that timely drought
relief measures can be more focused towards these areas
during periods of crisis.
