Understand Disaster Management for UPSC CSE/IAS Mains

Course:Disaster Management Course: Disaster Management Presented by Venkatesh Emani

About me - M. Sc geography from University of Madras Three years of experience in teaching Geography and Economy for civil services Interests : Love teaching, watching cricket and some long drives Follow me on Unacademy: h nh

Drought Droughts refer to a serious shortfall in availabilityofwater, mainly, but not exclusively, due to deficiency of rains It affects agriculture, drinking water supply and industry. # The causative factors are both natural and man made. Three types of drought: Meteorological drought is when there more than 10% decrease from normal precipitation overan area Hydrological drought results from prolonged meteorological drought resulting in depletion of surface and sub-surface waterresources. Agricultural drought isa situation when soil moistureand rainfallare inadequate to support healthycrop growth

Why droughts reoccur in India More than 80% of rainfall is received in less than 100 days during the South-west monsoon The geographic spread is uneven in terms of rainfall 21% area receives less than 700 mm rains annually making such areas the hot spotsofdrought. Adverse land-man ratio - hence practice of rain-fed agriculture in large parts of the country Ground-water withdrawal exceeds replenishment because of irrigation isularregion availabilityof surface wateritselfbecomes scarce in in the peninsularregion years of rainfall insufficiency The traditional water harvesting systems have been largely abandoned

Droughts Droughts have certain distinct features the onset is slow giving adequate warning, - it affects livelihoods of people over a large area, the duration of the disaster is much longer - Relief efforts have to be sustained over stretched time period . Drought prone areas : Rajasthan Gujarat Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu Jharkhand, Odisha

Solutions hould be water conservation, water storage and water Motto s recharge Identify and revive existing water sources before the monsoons - Adopting integrated groundwater recharge techniques, such as dams, tanks, anicuts, percolation tanks, form ponds, sub surface barriers etc . Objective is to create water buffer # Contour bunding-controls erosion, conserves moisture, recharges groundwater and prevents silting of tanks and reservoirs

Solutions Accelerate public investment in micro irrigation Eg: India Israel partnership in Drip irrigation Promoting cultivation of less intensive water crops and drought resistant crops Eg: Sugarcane-4 % cropped area in Maharastra but 2/3 of irrigated area - Promoting biodiverse crops like millets. (also promotes nutrition) Innovation in Public policy Eg: Reduce leakages in subsidy, replacing i rice fields saves 30% ofwater tpumpsets, SRI techniqueof Long term solution - inter basin river water transfer