Over two millennia long ring-width chronology of Himalayan pencil cedar from Western Himalaya, India

Abstract

Climate change has been the major driver in the rise and fall of important civilizations in human history. Even in modern times, frequent occurrence of extreme weather conditions continues to cause serious havoc to socio-economic activities in our country. Weather records of the past century show that the 1918 drought, when ~69% of the geographical area of the country experienced deficient monsoon rains, caused a devastating impact on the society1 . Understanding the recurrence behaviour of such extreme events is required to adopt appropriate mitigation measures.