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Research Paper | Geography | India | Volume 11 Issue 12, December 2022

Climatic Variability in a Kumaun Himalayan Watershed (Jatayu Ganga Watershed), Uttarakhand

Meenaxi ^[2] | Deepak ^[180]

Abstract: Due to global warming, the climate is changing steadily. Climate change in mountainous terrain of the fragile Himalayan region necessitates thorough understanding of present and future temperature and precipitation regimes for better water resource management, hydropower generation, natural hazard risk assessment and ecosystem response. But no data on climatic variability are available for most of the Himalayan region. The fundamental objective of this paper is to define the climatic variability and its prominent impact on hydrological system and agriculture activities in a Kumaon Himalayan watershed of the Uttarakhand state, viz the Jatayu Ganga. IMD gridded data of temperature and rainfall of the four decades (i. e., 1980 to 2020) were used and the Mann-Kendall test was applied to determine the trend in annual and monthly rainfall and temperature. The results reveal that the long-term average annual temperature of the study area stands at 20.9 OC which varies in between 11.3OC in the month of January to 27.3OC in the month of June. The analysis of annual average temperature series shows a rising trend which is found significant at a confidence level of 99%. The long-term mean annual rainfall in the watershed stands at 1507.51mm. July is the month of maximum rainfall (389.52mm) and November is the month of minimum rainfall (4.32mm). During the study period the maximum rainfall occurred in the year of 2003 (2974.07mm) while the minimum rainfall was recorded in 1997 (558.09 mm). The statistical analysis shows that rainfall is decreasing but it is non-significant trend in the series of rainfall data. It is believed that, if the decreasing rainfall and rising trend of temperature continues, it will have adverse impact on the water availability for drinking water supplies and water-dependent sectors like agriculture, horticulture and tourism in the Kumaon Himalayan region.

Keywords: Climate Variability, IMD, Mann-Kendall, Jatayu Ganga, Kumaun Himalaya

Edition: Volume 11 Issue 12, December 2022,

Pages: 1064 - 1072

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