India, Oct. 29 -- India's climate is turning hotter and drier, with large parts of north India changing from temperate to arid steppe and from hot and tropical Savannah to temperate, hot-summer, between 1961 and 2020, a 70-year analysis of rainfall and temperature changes conducted by researchers at the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has found.

The study also found that India's peninsular region (excluding the Central Deccan Plateau centred around Maharashtra's Vidarbha and Marathwada regions), on the other hand, has shifted towards the wetter zone, from arid steppe hot to tropical savannah.

Marathwada and west Vidarbha, already ravaged by drought and farmer suicides, have moved into a hotter, drier climate zone.

The study titl...