Assessment of Drought in Balangir District of Odisha, India Using Drought Indices

Droughts are normally triggered due to lack of rainfall and prolonged droughts have a multiplying effect and mount tremendous stress on natural resources leading to scarcity of water, food, and fodder. Balangir district is a chronically drought-prone area. Therefore this study was carried out to determine drought indices, drought index (DI), moisture indicator (MI), hydrothermal coefficient (HTC), and standardized precipitation index (SPI) to have a preliminary idea to forecast the possibility of occurrence of droughts for the 14 blocks of the district by treating each block as a unit. The drought indices were developed by utilizing historical rainfall data and temperature data during 1961–2007. Marginal droughts return period varies from 2–4 years, 4–16 years for moderate droughts and 24–48 years in case of severe droughts for all the blocks of Balangir district. Deogaon, Loisinga, and Titlagarh are chronically drought-prone areas; therefore these blocks need urgent attention from drought point of view. Balangir, Loisinga, Patnagarh, Puintala, Tentulikhunti, and Titlagarh blocks faced extreme agricultural drought conditions as per 3 months’ SPI value. Extreme hydrological drought conditions faced by Belpara, Balangir, Loisinga, Patnagarh, Puintala, and Tentulikhunti blocks according to 12 months’ SPI value. Agalpur, Bongomunda, Deogaon, Khaprakhol, Muribahal, Saintala, and Tureikela blocks did not experience any extreme dry events based on 3, 6, and 12 months’ SPI value. The analysis of these drought indices led to several useful and practicable inferences for better understanding the drought attributes of the study area. For this reason, this study will help in planning drought preparedness and its mitigation in a realistic and appropriate manner.