Occurrence of Droughts in Hoskote Town, Bangalore Rural District, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Hoskote Taluk is one of the eight Taluks of Bangalore Rural District in Karnataka with a current approximate population of 3, 03, 428; the total water demand comes out at around 49.5 MLD @ 135 LPCD, (WHO Standard). However with increasing population and depleting water resources, the people there do not get water even @ of 80 MLD (GOI standard for urban areas). With no surface water and declining water table below the ground, the greatest challenge the Taluk is currently facing and will face in the future is to meet the water demand of the population. There are five rain gauge stations in the area and are located in Hoskote, Hindiganala, Sulibele, Jadigenahally and Anugdanahally. In view of the scantiness and the variability in duration of these rainfall data, only data of Hoskote station, which is incidentally the taluk head quarter station, has been considered for the present study. For suggesting any remedies to solve water shortage and to help improve the current water resources, rainfall data from different sources for past 43 years is collected and analysed. And as such this report presents the rainfall data collected from Hoskote rain gauge station. Long term mean annual rainfall and its seasonal variability, trends of rainfall and probability studies with respect to drought, etc. Graphs are then prepared from these collected data and used for analyzing the data and to project the assumed future data. Statistical analysis of data yields rainfall pattern of the study area, rainfall pattern can be used to predict future rainfall quantity in Hoskote Town.