According to the Indian Meteorological Department, droughts occur when annual mean rainfall is less than 75% of the normal amount. It is a dry situation characterised by deficit rainfall, lack of water for household use or agriculture, or a deficiency of surface or subsurface water leading to an acute shortage of water.

• The country’s net cultivated area is about 56% of rain-fed land, which produces about 44% of its food. The Monsoon rains are vital to agriculture production and food security, but they also have an adverse impact on other sectors of the economy. The majority of the annual rainfall in India is received during the southwest monsoon (June – September). Because 73% of the annual rainfall occurs during the southwest monsoon, areas affected by drought will have to wait until the next season. Between October and December, the North-East Monsoon season brings most of the rainfall to coastal areas of peninsular India, including Tamil Nadu.

Drought Perspective of India: With facts and Data:

• Geographical extent: The country experiences droughts in 16 percent of its land area, and an estimated 50 million people in the country are affected by drought each year.

• Agricultural land: The extent of drought varies from different degrees on 68% of the sown area. 

• Rainfall and drought: There is a high risk of drought in 35% of the area that receives rainfall between 750 mm and 1125 mm.

• Highly drought Prone areas: Most droughtprone areas lie in the arid (19.6%), semiarid (37%) and sub-humid (21%) areas of the country that occupy 77.6% of its total land area of 329 million hectares, 33% of the area receive less than 750-mm rainfall and is chronically drought-prone, 21% area receives less than 750 mm rainfall (large area of Peninsular and Rajasthan), and Rainfall is erratic in 4 out of 10 years.

• Monsoon patterns: India receives an average of 1160mm of rain annually, but over 80% of it occurs within 100-120 days (SW Monsoon).

• Groundwater and drought: A limited supply of surface water and the depletion of groundwater means not all net sown areas can be irrigated.

• Per capita water: The availability of water per capita is steadily declining owing to population growth, rapid industrialisation, urbanisation, and crop intensification, as well as depleting groundwater levels. The problem is likely to become more serious.

Droughts in India have been managed using a variety of progressive and innovative measures such as the Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP), Desert Development Programme (DDP), Integrated Watershed Development Programme (IWDP), and National Watershed Development Programme for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA), among others. The Ministry of Rural Development’s Department of Land Records has now merged DDP, DPAP, and IWDP into a single comprehensive programme known as the Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP).