**3.1. Chikkamagaluru (Humid region)**

**Moisture Index(IM) Climatic Type Notation** 100 & above Perhumid A 80 to 100 Humid B4 60 to 80 Humid B3 40 to 60 Humid B2 20 to 40 Humid B1 0 to 20 Moist Subhumid C2 -20 to 0 Dry Subhumid C1 -40 to -20 Semiarid D -60 to -40 Arid E

The selected districts for the study are Chikkamagaluru, Belgaum, Chamrajnagar and Gul‐ barga of which climates are Humid, Dry subhumid, Semiarid and Arid. A comparative study was made with the seasonal values of IM and NDVI using time series and correlation analysis.

Table 2 shows the climatology of the four selected test sites during the period of 1982 to 2000. The overall climate of the test regions for the study period represented the humid, dry subhumid, semi arid and arid for Chikkamagaluru, Belgaum, Chamrajanagar and Gulbarga

 C1 C1 D E B1 C2 D E 1984 C2 D D E 1985 C1 D D E 1986 C2 D D E 1987 C1 D D E B2 C1 D E 1989 C2 D D E 1990 C1 D D E B1 C1 D E B2 C2 D E B1 B1 C1 E B2 C2 D E C2 C1 D E 1996 B1 D D E B1 C1 C1 E B2 C2 C2 E B1 B1 C1 E B1 C2 D E

**Chikkamagaluru Belgaum Chamarajanagar Gulbarga**

**Table 1.** Classification of climatic types based on Thoronthwaite Approach

**Year Climate Type**

**Table 2.** Climatic types of test regions from 1982 to 2000

districts respectively.

100 Environmental Change and Sustainability

The climatic types of Chikkamagaluru were dominated by humid type which is followed by the dry sub humid type. Chikmagalore (Humid region) recorded a maximum IM of 450 during the year 1994 (Figure 6). The variation of IM shows that it has increased from June to August in all years and recorded a comparative less value in the month of September. In a similar way, the NDVI progressed from June to September in all years with a maximum value of 0.55 for September, 1992. It is conspicuous that the variability in NDVI is more than IM and the trends of IM and NDVI were increasing. The correlation coefficient of these two indices is +0.08 which is very poor. The studies of [38, 39] also suggested that understanding the relation of NDVI with rainfall and its by-products is a very difficult task in humid regions. Since the plenty of moisture is already available in the soil, the vegetation can utilize the moisture for its growth and in such case it may not directly/immediately dependant on rainfall derived indices in humid regions.

**Figure 6.** Variation of IM and NDVI – Chikkamagaluru
