Standardized Precipitation Index Based Drought Assessment over the North Western Zone of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Drought is a natural disaster that tremendously affect the agriculture production and livelihood. Though the Tamil Nadu state is located at peninsular region of India and contributed from both the monsoons, the frequency of drought is high due to vagaries of monsoonal pattern. A study was conducted at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to assess the drought characteristics across the north western Agro Climatic Zone (ACZ) of Tamil Nadu using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) during the past 30 years (1991-2020). The study clearly indicated that the Salem district had high vulnerability to drought followed by Dharmapuri and Namakkal districts during the South West Monsoon (SWM), whereas the Namakkal had high vulnerability followed by Salem and Dharmapuri during North East Monsoon (NEM).