Drought -- National Drought Mitigation Center
Title
India’s Arid Region and the Current Drought
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
July 2000
We recently surveyed some of the drought-affected
areas (Figure 1) in the Indian arid region in a
publication entitled “Strategy to Combat Drought and
Famine in the Indian Arid Zone.” This article is a
summary of the report.
The present drought in the arid and semiarid regions
of India is due to the cumulative effect of inadequate
rainfall during 1997–99. Twelve states in India
are in the grip of severe drought, with Rajasthan,
Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh
(Table 1) being the most affected. The Indian arid
zone encompasses 32 million ha and is highly prone to
droughts and famines. During the 20th century, the
region experienced agricultural drought an average of
once every two or three years (Table 2).
Often droughts persist continuously for 3 to 6
years, such as the droughts of 1903–05, 1957–60,
1966–71, 1984–87, and 1997–99. When the monsoon
rains do not occur, the region is totally dependent
on buffer stocks for food and fodder to sustain
its 19.8 million people and 28 million livestock. Migration
in search of fodder, food, work, and water is
a common feature, causing hardships for desert
dwellers, livestock casualties, and famines during extreme
drought situations.
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Published in Drought Network News Vol. 12, No. 2, Summer 2000. Published by the International Drought Information Center and the National Drought Mitigation Center, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska – Lincoln.