DROUGHTS and FAMINES IN INDIA:

What is drought?
Drought is a serious natural hazard that has severe implications for the
affected region. It can be defined as:
a protracted period of deficient precipitation resulting in
extensive damage to crops, resulting in loss of yield
In more technical terms it is defined as:
a period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently prolonged for
the lack of water to cause serious hydrologic imbalance in the
affected area.
What is famine?
Famine in its simplest terms can be defined as the extreme scarcity of
food.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Reference
Table (the standard used by the UN), famine occurs when the first three of
the following conditions occur:
20 percent of population has fewer than 2,100 kilocalories of food a
day
30 percent of children are acutely malnourished
Two deaths per 10,000 people, or four deaths per 10,000 children per
day
Pandemic illness
Access to less than four liters of water per day
Large-scale displacement
Civil strife
Complete loss of assets and source of income

The severe drought like conditions are the result of climatic imbalances
caused by the failure of the monsoon. 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 11 th 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

WHAT ARE THE 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: Cutting of trees in the name of development without
providing an alternate source for forestation.
4. Erosion: The gradual degradation of the quality of soil because of human
development consequences.
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF DROUGHT/FAMINES?
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 (Vidarbha region) 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/FAMINES:
The Government in India has been sensitive to the problems of the farmers
who are rendered helpless by such natural calamities. The usual drought
management cycle is depicted in the following figure 2.

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.

5. Implementing the below pictured early warning system: