Study: Monsoon decline doomed Indus civilisation | India News – Times of India

PUNE: A study by researchers at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has revealed that an interplay of climate factors, strikingly similar to those affecting modern-day monsoons, likely led to the collapse of the Indus Valley civilisation over 4,000 years ago through long droughts.
Analysing ancient cave formations (speleothems) from Gupteswar and Kadapa caves in south India, the study found how reduced solar radiation, El Nino, southward migration of Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), and a negative phase of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) collectively weakened the monsoon, triggering the downfall of the ancient civilisation.The study has been published in Quaternary International journal.
Indus Valley civilisation included major urban centres like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, along with settlements such as Dholavira, Lothal, and Rakhigarhi. The research team analysed cave deposits in peninsular India, uncovering a 7,000-year climate record that provided insights into the region’s past climate variations.