Aridity Anomaly Outlook Index : IMD

Aridity Anomaly Outlook Index : IMD

Recently Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) released the Index for the month of July

Key findings:

• Nearly 660 of 756 districts (85%) were facing different degrees of aridity, while only 63 are non-arid.
• At least 196 districts are in the grip of a ‘severe’ degree of dryness and 65 of these are in Uttar Pradesh
• Nearly 69% of India is dry land
• Impacts of drought in agriculture, especially in the tropics where defined wet and dry seasons are part of the climate regime.
• Both winter and summer cropping seasons can be assessed using this method.
• Large Arid regions are found in the desert of Rajasthan, Rann of Kutch and semi-arid regions of Punjab and Gujarat, rain shadow areas of Western Ghats.