Skill India

Drought:

Drought is a temporary reduction in water or moisture availability significantly below the normal or expected amount for a specific period. This condition occur either due to inadequacy of rainfall or lack of irrigation facilities under exploitation or deficient availability for meeting the normal crop requirements in the context of the agro-climatic conditions prevailing in particular area. This has been scientifically computed as Moisture Index (MI). Drought, in this context, can be defined as adverse MI or adverse water balance which may be attributable not only to a prolonged dry spell due to lack of sufficient rainfall but also due to such other factors as excessive evapo-transpiration losses, high temperature, low soil holding capacity etc. The inadequacy is with reference to the prevailing agro climatic conditions in any particular area.

Types of Draughts

Type

Characteristics

Meteorological

Drought

A situation where there is a reduction in rainfall for a specific period (days, months, season or year) below a specific amount (long term average for a specific time). Hydrological Drought involves a reduction in water resources (stream flow, lake level, ground water, underground aquifers) below a specified level for a given period of time.

Agricultural

Drought

Agriculture drought is the impact of meteorological/hydrological drought on crop yield. Agricultural drought is the common phenomenon in Leh district. It is particularly very well noticed in Changthang region. In Changthang, drought situation is also caused by Locust Menace moving across the border from china. It eats away all the green parts of a plant resulting in death and stunting of plant and multiple branching from the base in case of tree plantation.

 

Mitigation of Drought:

The impact of drought can be reduced to a greater extent through preparedness and mitigation planning procedures:

  • Prediction of drought is a tough job as it has to be dealt with underfined time period but this can be tackled with the help of indicators like degradation of water availability, low productivity that provides us with the view on the drought on-set pace. This facilitates the community and the administration to develop approaches which reduce the impact of the disaster.
  • Monitoring over-availability of water resources, crop conditions, ground water levels, rainfall and climatic condition etc. in comparison to the water usage and its availability can help in a more accurate prediction process.
  • Impact assessment of drought can be analysed with the indicators like land use pattern, cattle rearing, agricultural yield, cropping pattern, social strucuture, demographics, ecology of the area and water availability etc. helping for a greater knowledge over the type of drought and the severity of the disaster. further assisting in planning the response strategy for the reduction of severity.
  • Response includes improved drought monitoring. Better water and crop management can be done by improving awareness among the communities and making them responsible for usage of community resources not individually but community as a whole, rise of water supplies with ground water, increased public awareness and education, intensified watershed and local planning, reduction in water demand and water conservation.
  • The cattles are the worst effected during a drought situation. Where it is not possible to supply fodder or take medical care of cattle, cattle camps are to be opened to take complete care of the cattle population. The following is a checklist of points for monitoring the fodder requirement in the difficult drought situation.

    1. Assessment of fodder requirement in drought affected areas of the district and locate areas where shortages are likely to occur and arrange for supplies from outside.
    2. Arrange to procure fodder in selected outlets.
    3. Fodder cultivation to be encouraged wherever feasible.
    4. Ensure supply from molasses to cattle feed plants.
  • Obtaining from premixed feed and urea-molasses bricks to the extent.