International Journal of Ecosystem 2014, 4(3): 150-158 DOI: 10.5923/j.ije.20140403.07 Drought in Northern Bangladesh: Social, Agroecological Impact and Local Perception Abu Reza Md. Towfiqul Islam 1,* , Anjum Tasnuva 1 , Subaran Chandra Sarker 2 , Md. Masudar Rahman 3 , Md. Sanaul Haque Mondal 4 , Md. Mujahid Ul Islam 1 1 Department of Disaster Management, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, 5400, Bangladesh 2 Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, 5400, Bangladesh 3 Department of Geography and Environmental studies, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, 6205, Bangladesh 4 International Rice Research Institute, Dhaka, 1207, Bangladesh Abstract The 1994, 2000 and 2006 drought appeared to bad memories in the northern region of Rangpur division, Bangladesh. The objective of this research was to explore social and agro-ecological impact of drought and local perception in the study area. A semi-structural questionnaire was employed from February to March, 2014 where 120 respondents were chosen stratified sampling to acquire information at drought prone area. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used as a main tool for purpose of the study. The results revealed that drought were adversely impacted on social and agro-ecology in the study area. Local perception depicted that drought is as a curse of God and the outcome of sin while some perceive are evaluated as human negligence and shortage of water. The study was also revealed that higher knowledge variability were belonging to group 3 and group 4 people. The descriptive and inferential statistics indicated that there was a significant correlation between literacy and occupation type with social and agro-ecological impact of drought. But, there were no significant relationship between age, household size and land ownership with social and agro-ecological impact of drought. It is suggested that if awareness and literacy level increases to diminish social and agro-ecological impact of drought in the study area. Keywords Northern Bangladesh, Local perception, Knowledge variability, Agro-ecological impact and Literacy level 1. Introduction Drought can occur in any climate of the world and cause harmful impacts on human beings and natural ecosystems [1-2]. Drought may be meteorological (problematic weather patterns), hydrological (lack of rain), agricultural (low commodity production) and socio-economic (low incomes and social consequences) explanations; that it is drought's impact on people and their activities [3]. Wangai et al. [4] assesses the actual losses of both livestock and wildlife species at Kuku of southern Kenya during the 2009 drought and the subsequently socio-economic initiatives undertaken to adapt to the drought. Northern region of Rangpur is one the most severe drought prone area in Bangladesh with an average rainfall of about 1430 mm per year. Irregular characteristics of rainfall and global climate changes are the main causes of drought. In recent decades, agriculture production and livestock production are significantly reduced in the northern region of Rangpur division, Bangladesh. The impact of drought not only leads to the * Corresponding author: gm_towfique_06@yahoo.com (Abu Reza Md. Towfiqul Islam) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/ije Copyright © 2014 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved shortage of water and food but also have a long-term environmental, socio-economic and health impact on the population [5]. Wilhite [6] studied that drought has priority to other natural disasters in the frequency of occurrence, duration and extent, loss of life, economic and social impacts and severe effects in the long run. Rezayi et al. [7] surveyed economic, social, environmental and ecological impacts of drought in Zanjan province of Iran and concluded that these negative impacts were economic, environmental, social, and ecological. Drought is a chief environmental concern which hampering photosynthesis of plant and adversely affecting the herbivorous animals. Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses which adversely affect crop growth and yield and thus a constraint for plant productivity worldwide [8]. Furthermore, coping mechanism to drought that fails to meet the new challenges of drought re-occurrences, socio-economic and long term climate changes impacts [9]. Bimal [10] studied the coping mechanism practiced by drought victims (1994-95) in North Bengal, Bangladesh. The results of his study indicated that drought is a reversible phenomenon in Bangladesh, affecting plant growth and leading to loss of crop production, food shortage for many people’s starvation. Drought led to a decrease in rice and wheat production of 3.5 × 106 ton in 1994–95 [11]. The 2006