DROUGHTS IN INDIA

The present drought situation the country is undergoing is pretty serious.

More than 246 districts in the country have been affected by the malady
caused by deficient rainfall. The severe drought like conditions are the
result of climatic imbalances caused by the failure of the monsoon and the
meteorologists link this failure to a phenomenon known as El-Nino
Southern Oscillation abbreviated as ENSO. In the light of the present
calamity a historical account of the droughts and consequential famines
that occurred in India may not be out of place. In recent times there have
been no famines mainly because of the  availability of a buffer stock of
foodgrains, better transportation and storage facilities  as well as greatly
improved logistics because of application of technology. Over and above
the Government of India has adopted Food security as a prime motto.
Major famines in recorded history have taken a heavy toll of many
millions. There have been in all about 14 major famines in India since the
11th century. Each of them has caused tremendous suffering and
depopulated particular regions due to starvation deaths. A few of the
famines which left behind death and devastation were

1. The great famine of 1630-32 which affected present day Gujarat and
the Deccan

2. The great Bengal famine of 1770

3. The Chalisa famine of 1783-84 which affected much of northern and

central India including present day Delhi, Uttar- Pradesh, Haryana,
Rajasthan, Kashmir and Punjab

4. The Doji bara or the skull famine of 1791-92 which affected the old
Hyderabad and the Southern Maratha regions.

5. The Bengal famine of 1943

CAUSES OF DROUGHT:
Traditionally causes of droughts in India have been of three kinds.

1. Meteorological : They are related to climatic conditions and deficiency

in rainfall . The deficiency may be for specific divisions or areas and not
the country as a whole. The deficiency is measured as a deviation from
the mean rainfall over a particular region

2. Hydrological: Surface and ground water depletion and drying up of

fresh water bodies such as rivers , lakes and ponds

3. Agricultural: The moisture content of the soil decreases and causes

great stress to the crops and eventual failure results in lowering of 
agricultural productivity.

Human factors are also responsible for this. They are

1. Overfarming: This leads to depletion of soil fertility and nutrients do
not get replenished leading to drought like conditions

2. Excessive irrigation: This can lead to loss of water and a falling

water table

3. Deforestation

4. Erosion

CONSEQUENCES OF DROUGHT:

Droughts in India are responsible for agricultural, social and economic

consequences.

1. Agricultural Consequences: Subsistence farmers are the worst hit

their plots of land turn into dust bowls, lower carrying capacity of land
results in low crop yield and inability to sustain livestock. Water
contamination results from the reduced flow of water.

2. Economic Consequences: Thousands of farmers in India have

committed suicide because they have taken huge loans to fund their
operations from private moneylenders and are unable to discharge their
debt. The sugarcane farmers in Maharashtra and tobacco and rice farmers
in Andhra Pradesh have been the worst hit. Power supplies to farms also
get affected because of paucity of water. Shortage of food causes
malnutrition

3. Social Consequences: In India there have been cases of social unrest

amongst the farming community leading to family disputes. Mass
migration to urban areas in search of alternative occupation, particularly
by the small and marginal farmers. 

SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS  CAUSED BY DROUGHT

 The Government in India has been sensitive to the problems of the
farmers who are rendered helpless by such natural calamities.

1. Rainwater harvesting schemes have been introduced especially in the

southern parts to help farmers mitigate the crisis, these include both roof
water and ground water

2. Tapping river water and building canals for diverting such water to
deficit areas, this will also help to tackle the recurring problem of floods.
Damming of major rivers and creating reservoir capacity. There are
however serious limits to creation of artificial irrigation facilities in the
Indian context.

3.  Both the Central and the State govts have been open to ideas such as
artificial rain through cloud seeding and desalination of seawater given
our large marine resources
4. Apart from the abovementioned measures the Govt has been
implementing economic remedies to meet the contingencies. More than
70,000 crores worth of agricultural loans have been waived thus providing
debt relief to farmers. Welfare programs such as the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Program (NREGP) have made  deep and
successful inroads into rural areas.

Drought Affected Areas

Most of the drought-prone areas are found in arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid
regions of the country, which experience less than average annual rainfall.
Broadly, the drought-affected areas in India can be divided into two tracts.
The first tract comprising the desert and the semi-arid regions covers an area
of 0.6 million sq. km. It is rectangle shaped area whose one side extends from
Ahmedabad to Kanpur and the other from Kanpur to Jullundur. In this
region, rainfall is less than 750mm and at some places it is even less than 400
mm. The second tract comprises the regions east of the Western Ghats up to a
distance of about 300 km from coast. Known as the rain shadow area of the
Western Ghats, rainfall in this region is less than 750mm and is highly erratic.
This region is thickly populated and periodic droughts cause considerable
suffering and distress.

Besides these two tracts of scarcity, there are many pockets of drought in
India. Some of these are :

 Tirunelveli district, south of Vaigai River in Tamil Nadu

 Coimbatore area in Kerala
 Saurashtra and Kutch regions in Gujarat
 Mirzapur plateau and Palamu regions in Uttar Pradesh
 Purulia district of West Bengal
 Kalahandi region of Orissa.

Together, these scattered pockets occupy an area of 0.1 million sq. km.
Drought is a recurrent phenomenon in Andhra Pradesh where no district is
entirely free of droughts.

Rajasthan is one of the most drought prone areas of India. Eleven districts of
the state are in arid regions including Jaisalmer as the driest district. No
perennial river flows in Jaisalmer. Groundwater level in the district is 125–
250 ft deep and at some places 400 ft deep. The rainfall in the district is
extremely low at 164 mm. Out of 365 days of a year, on an average 355 days
are dry.

The total area which receives inadequate rainfall is just over one million sq.
km. The regions with rainfall less than 400mm occupy 12% of the total
geographical area, and the area below 750mm rainfall is 35% or a little over a
third of the country. Thus out of the total gross cultivated area of the country,
56 million ha is subject to inadequate and highly variable rainfall.

Large areas in the four states that utilize Narmada water falls in arid and
semi-arid regions. As shown in Table 8, nearly 57% of Rajasthan and 32% of
Gujarat falls in arid zone. Also, nearly 61% of Maharashtra and 46% of the
area of Gujarat is semi-arid. This shows how important it is for these states to
properly use available water.

How Can We Protect Ourselves from Drought?

Drought is different from tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods. It can be more difficult to detect and it can
last much longer than other weather events. We don’t have “watches” or “warnings” for drought like
we do for other natural hazards. But just because drought is different from the other natural disasters
doesn’t mean we can’t plan for it and take steps to help protect ourselves from the effects of drought.
In fact, the National Drought Mitigation Center helps people plan for drought.
What does mitigation mean?
When you want to cross a street, you look both ways before crossing, don’t you? Of course you do!

Looking both ways before crossing the street is a very simple thing that you can do to help reduce

your risk of being injured by oncoming traffic. Reducing your risk of being injured would be an action

that mitigates harm to you.

When we think about mitigation as it relates to drought, mitigation means taking actions before, or at

the beginning of, drought to help reduce the impacts (or effects) of drought. We can do many things
to mitigate drought. Let’s take a look at the ways that people, communities, states, and the nation
can reduce drought risk.
In this section, we’ll learn about things we can do to ahead of time to prepare for drought in our
communities and our environment. These things include making drought plans, conserving water,
building dams and other structures that help us store water, and learning about drought and your
environment.
Understanding Drought and the Environment
Water Conservation
Pollution Prevention
Storing and Moving Water