Question

Divide India into natural disaster vulnerability zones based on droughts and suggest some mitigation measures.

Answer 1

On the basis of the severity of droughts, India can be divided into the following regions:

1. Extreme Drought Affected Areas: Most parts of Rajasthan, particularly areas to the west of the Aravali hills, i.e. Marusthali and Kachchh regions of Gujarat fall in this category. Included here are also the districts like Jaisalmer and Barmer from the Indian desert that receive less than 90 mm average annual rainfall.

2. Severe Drought Prone Area: Parts of eastern Rajasthan, most parts of Madhya Pradesh, eastern parts of Maharashtra, interior parts of Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka Plateau, northern parts of interior Tamil Nadu, and southern parts of Jharkhand and interior Odisha are included in this category.

3. Moderate Drought Affected Area: Northern parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, southern districts of Uttar Pradesh, the remaining parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra except Konkan, Jharkhand, and Coimbatore plateau of Tamil Nadu and interior Karnataka are included in this category. The remaining parts of India can be considered either free or less prone to drought.

Remedial Measures

• Provision for the distribution of safe drinking water, medicines for the victims and availability of fodder and water for the cattle and shifting of the people and their livestock to safer places, etc.
• Identification of groundwater potential in the form of aquifers, transfer of river water from the surplus to the deficit areas, and particularly planning for inter-linking of rivers and construction of reservoirs and dams, etc.
• Remote sensing and satellite imageries can be useful in identifying the possible river basins that can be inter-linked and in identifying the groundwater potential.
• Rainwater harvesting can also be an effective method in minimizing the effects of drought.