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Investigating the temporal dynamics of rainfall in a changing climate, especially in rainfed agriculture regions, is crucial for analyzing climate-induced changes and offering adaptation options. Since Mizoram experiences unfavorable impacts of rain nearly every year, the region rainfall has been altering over the years, and vital climatic activity is becoming uncontrollable. The current study is primarily concerned with the changing trend of rainfall over Mizoram, which includes both short-term persistence (STP) and long-term persistence (LTP) of rainfall in seasonal and annual time series of rainfall overseeing for the period of 25 years of daily average rainfall from 1996 to 2020 collected collectively from the seven stations over the study area of Mizoram. Four different Mann-Kendall method iterations were used to analyze rainfall trends: the original or conventional method (without autocorrelation) (MnKn1), removing lag-1 autocorrelation (trend-free pre-whitening), considering multiple lag autocorrelation (more than lag-1 autocorrelation) (MnKn3), and Hurst coefficient or LTP (MnKn4). In the analysis, the study found that during monsoon, station Lawngtlai (LT) observed the highest rainfall having a Z value of 1.986, increased by 0.466 cm/year, while station Serchhip (SC) observed the lowest rainfall having Z value of -2.282, decreased by -0.163 cm/year. After applying modified MnKn4, we observed LTP of rainfall in winter at station Lawngtlai (LT) with an increasing trend and other stations observing STP in almost all seasons either increasing or decreasing trend. Therefore, possible climate change adaptation measures should be made to optimize rainfall use for various applications for the states of Mizoram., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

An increase in the human population, urbanization, industrialization, infrastructural development, and current agricultural practices acts as major factors leading to the decline of the groundwater table in the region. The present study analyzes the noticeable effect of anthropogenic pressure on the groundwater table in the Bist-Doab region in Punjab, India, from 1996 to 2016. Statistical techniques, viz., Mann-Kendall Z statistics and Sen's slope, were used to estimate the water table decline in the area. The results indicate that there was a slight increase in the groundwater table in the Kandi belt of Siwalik foothills and south-western parts of the region. In the rest of the areas, a significant declining trend was observed in the groundwater table. The decline in the water table ranged from 56 to 149 cm per year in the pre- and post-monsoon seasons due to increasing in rice cultivated area, which is an alarming situation in the aquifer system of the region. Hence, to reduce the further decline of the groundwater table, water management practices need to be encouraged in the region. There is requiring immediate attention to change the present land-use/cover practices and to grow less water-consuming crops instead of high water-consuming crops to reduce the pressure on groundwater.