Abstract: Present study attempted to quantify district wise annual rainfall change statistics over the West Bengal State using the monthly rainfall data from the Indian Meteorological Department during 1901–2000. The characteristic of mean annual rainfall varies abruptly from ~1491±301 mm in the thirteen south Bengal districts to ~2532±486 mm in six North Bengal districts. 30 years mean rainfall climatology indicates that the mean rainfall normally varies 3100–3900 mm in the sub-Himalayan districts namely Darjeeling, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri while it varies 1454–1505 mm in the south Bengal districts viz. Bardhaman, Nadia, Purulia and Bankura. Mann Kendall trend analysis shows that North Bengal has a consistent increasing slope during 1920s to 1980s as well as in the centennial time period (1901–2000). The rainfall trend has shifted from a negative slope to a highly positive slope during the transition of 1950s to 1980s for most of the districts of South Bengal. Percentage of annual rainfall change with respect to 1901–30 period indicates a deficient rainfall (1–10%) for the districts like Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur, Malda, Burdwan, Nadia and Purulia, while, Darjeeling, Cooch Behar, Bankra, Hooghly, Midnapur and all others have shown an increasing trend of rainfall by 2–20% in the periods of 1931–60, 1961–90 and 1901–2000. So future crop planning has to be adjusted keeping in view deficient rain over North Bengal districts and surplus rain over South Bengal districts.
