The lower Indo-gangetic plains of India comprising of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal are frequently flooded by tributaries of Ganga during monsoon and there is a need to provide waterlog stress resilient sugarcane clones to farmers for cultivation. Assessment of genetic diversity is important in any breeding endeavour to achieve success. Sixteen sugarcane clones of mid-late maturity groups were evaluated for twenty three different morphological and physiological characters in the year 2017-18. The experiment was carried out at Paddy Block of Research Farm, R.P.C.A.U.,Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar which is situated alongside the bank of river BurhiGandak, a tributary of river Ganga. The field remained waterlogged during monsoon with maximum depth of water being 140cm.Mahalnobis D2 distances were computed and clusters were formed using tochers method which grouped genotypes in 6 clusters with cluster 5 and 6 having single genotypes. The lowest intra-cluster distance value of zero was observed for cluster 5 and 6 as they contained dingle genotype and highest value of intra-cluster distance was observed for cluster 2. The largest inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster 2 and 5 and lowest between cluster 1 and 3. Characters such as chlorophyll b content, chlorophyll a content and total chlorophyll content showed largest contribution towards divergence. Cluster 5 containing a single genotype CoP2061 had highest mean value for cane and sugar yield followed by cluster 1 and 3. Thus, genotypes in these clusters can be used in further breeding programmes. Similarly other genotypes in other clusters may well be used for targeting a particular trait in a particular environment in ideotype breeding programmes.

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