imported>Abm1994 at 23:42, 18 June 2025

2025-06-18T23:42:03Z

New page

{{Short description|Natural calamity}}
[[File:Drought affected area in Karnataka, India, 2012.jpg|thumb|Drought-affected area in Karnataka, India, 2012]]

[[Drought]] has resulted in millions of deaths in [[India]] over the years.{{cn|date=May 2023}} [[Indian agriculture]] is heavily dependent on the [[climate of India|country's climate]]: a favorable [[monsoon]] is critical to securing water for irrigating India's crops. In parts of India, [[Climate of India|failure]] of the monsoons causes water shortages, resulting in poor yields.<ref name="IGARSS2017">{{cite book |last1=Swain|display-authors=etal|first1=S |title=2017 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) |chapter=Application of SPI, EDI and PNPI using MSWEP precipitation data over Marathwada, India |volume=2017 |pages=5505–5507 |year=2017|doi=10.1109/IGARSS.2017.8128250 |isbn=978-1-5090-4951-6|s2cid=26920225 }}</ref> This is particularly true of major drought-prone regions southeastern [[Maharashtra]], northern [[Karnataka]], [[Andhra Pradesh]], [[Odisha]], [[Gujarat]], [[Telangana]], and [[Rajasthan]].

== History ==
Only about 35% of total agricultural land in India is irrigated and two-thirds of cultivated land is entirely dependent on rainfall. As such, the agricultural production system in the country is more vulnerable to damage from extreme climatic events, which causes increased water stress leading to inadequate water supplies for irrigation. Already, rises in average temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns, increasing frequency of extreme weather events, such as severe droughts and floods, and the shifting of agricultural seasons have been observed in different agro-ecological zones of India. Long drought spells during Kharif and increased temperatures and unseasonal heavy rains during the rabi season have caused serious distress to the farming communities in different states in recent years. Four major farming systems are prevailing in India: the irrigated system, rainfed system, silvo-pastoral system, and desert farming.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ICARDA India Country Office |url=https://www.icarda.org/research/country/india |website=International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)}}</ref>

In the past, droughts have periodically led to [[famine in India|major Indian famine]]s, including the [[Bengal famine of 1770]], in which up to one third of the population in affected areas died; the 1876–1877 famine, in which over five million people died; and the 1899 famine, in which over 4.5 million died.<ref name="Nash_2002_22-23">{{harvnb|Nash|2002|pp=22–23}}.</ref><ref name="Collier_2002_67">{{harvnb|Collier|Webb|2002|p=67}}.</ref> In simple words, drought has destroyed India on a large scale. Eighteen meteorological and 16 hydrological droughts occurred in India between 1870 and 2018. The most severe meteorological droughts were in the years 1876, 1899, 1918, 1965, and 2000, while the five worst hydrological droughts occurred in the years 1876, 1899, 1918, 1965, and 2000. The drought of 1899 can be classified as meteorological as well as hydrological and was the most severe documented drought India has ever experienced to date.

Droughts correlate with [[heat waves]] (see [[List of Indian heat waves]]).

== Impact of El Niño ==

All such episodes of severe drought correlate with [[El Niño–Southern Oscillation]] (ENSO) events.<ref name="Kumar_2006">{{Citation |author1=Kumar KK |author2=Rajagopalan B |author3=Hoerling M |author4=Bates G |author5=Cane M |title=Unraveling the Mystery of Indian Monsoon Failure During El Niño |journal=Science |volume=314 |issue=5796 |pages=115–119 |year=2006 |doi=10.1126/science.1131152 |pmid=16959975 |postscript=.|bibcode = 2006Sci...314..115K |s2cid=7085413 }}</ref><ref name="Caviedes_2001_121">{{harvnb|Caviedes|2001|p=121}}</ref> [[El Niño]]-related droughts have also been implicated in periodic declines in Indian agricultural output.<ref name="Caviedes_2001_259">{{harvnb|Caviedes|2001|p=259}}.</ref> Nevertheless, ENSO events that have coincided with abnormally high sea surfaces temperatures in the Indian Ocean—in one instance during 1997 and 1998 by up to 3 °C (5 °F)—have resulted in increased oceanic evaporation, resulting in unusually wet weather across India. Such anomalies occurred during a sustained warm spell that began in the 1990s.<ref name="Nash_2002_258-259">{{harvnb|Nash|2002|pp=258–259}}.</ref> A contrasting phenomenon is that, instead of the usual high-pressure air mass over the southern Indian Ocean, an ENSO-related oceanic low-pressure convergence center forms; it then continually pulls dry air from Central Asia, desiccating India during what should have been the humid summer monsoon season. This reversed airflow causes India's droughts.<ref name="Caviedes_2001_117">{{harvnb|Caviedes|2001|p=117}}.</ref> The extent that an ENSO event raises [[sea surface temperature]]s in the central [[Pacific Ocean]] influences the degree of drought.<ref name="Kumar_2006"/> Around 43 percent of El Niño events are followed by drought in India.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/preparing-for-a-poor-monsoon/article5948470.ece | title=Preparing for a poor monsoon | work=[[The Hindu]] | date=26 April 2014 | accessdate=27 April 2014}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Ecology|India}}
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[List of cleanest cities in India]]
* [[Climate of India]]
* [[Climate change in India]]
* [[Peak water]]
* [[Environment of India]]
* [[Kalpasar Project]]
* [[Dissolved load]]
* [[Indian rivers interlinking project]]
* [[Interstate River Water Disputes Act]]
* [[Irrigation in India]]
* [[List of drainage basins by area]]
* [[List of rivers of India by discharge]]
* [[List of rivers by discharge]]
* [[List of dams and reservoirs in India]]
* [[List of water supply and sanitation by country]]
* [[Polavaram Project]]
* [[Pollution of the Ganges]]
* [[Indian water policy]]
* [[Saemangeum Seawall]]
* [[Water scarcity in India]]
* [[Water supply and sanitation in India]]
* [[Water pollution in India]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Citation |last=Allaby |first=M |title=Floods |year=1998 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=0-8160-3520-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/floods00alla }}.
* {{Citation |last=Allaby |first=M |title=Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate |year=2002 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=0-8160-4071-0}}.
* {{Citation |last=Balfour |first=E |title= Encyclopaedia Asiatica: Comprising Indian Subcontinent, Eastern and Southern Asia |year=1976 |publisher=Cosmo Publications |isbn=81-7020-325-2}}.
* {{Citation |last=Burroughs |first=WJ |title=The Climate Revealed |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-77081-5}}.
* {{Citation |last=Caviedes |first=C |year=2001 |title=El Niño in History: Storming Through the Ages |publisher=University Press of Florida |isbn=0-8130-2099-9}}.
* {{Citation |last=Chouhan |first=TS |year=1992 |title=Desertification in the World and Its Control |publisher=Scientific Publishers |isbn=81-7233-043-X}}.
* {{Citation |last1=Collier |first1=W |last2=Webb |first2=R |year=2002 |title=Floods, Droughts and Climate Change |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=0-8165-2250-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/floodsdroughtscl00mich }}.
* {{Citation |last1=Heitzman |first1=J |last2=Worden |first2=RL |year=1996 |title=India: A Country Study |publisher=Library of Congress (Area Handbook Series) |isbn=0-8444-0833-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/indiacountrystud0000unse }}.
* {{Citation |last=Nash |first=JM |year=2002 |title=El Niño: Unlocking the Secrets of the Master Weather Maker |publisher=Warner |isbn=0-446-52481-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/elniounlocking00nash }}.
* {{Citation |last=Posey |first=CA |year=1994 |title=The Living Earth Book of Wind and Weather |publisher=Reader's Digest Association |isbn=0-89577-625-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/livingearthbooko00pose }}.
* {{Citation |last1=Singh |first1=VP |last2=Ojha |first2=CSP |last3=Sharma |first3=N |year=2004 |title=The Brahmaputra Basin Water Resources |publisher=Springer |isbn=1-4020-1737-5}}.
{{refend}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
* [[Christopher de Bellaigue]], "The River" (the [[Ganges]]; review of [[Sunil Amrith]], ''Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts, and Seas Have Shaped Asia's History''; [[Sudipta Sen]], ''Ganges: The Many Pasts of an Indian River''; and Victor Mallet, ''River of Life, River of Death: The Ganges and India's Future''), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXVI, no. 15 (10 October 2019), pp. 34–36. "[I]n 1951 the average Indian [inhabitant of India] had access annually to 5,200 cubic meters of water. The figure today is 1,400... and will probably fall below 1,000 cubic meters – the [[UN]]'s definition of 'water scarcity' – at some point in the next few decades. Compounding the problem of lower summer rainfall... India's [[water table]] is in freefall [due] to an increase in the number of [[tube well]]s... Other contributors to India's seasonal dearth of water are [[canal]] leaks [and] the continued sowing of thirsty crops..." (p. 35.)

== External links ==
{{commons|Atlas of India}}

{{refbegin}}
; General overview
* {{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/country_guides/results.shtml?tt=TT002240 |title=Country Guide: India |work=[[BBC Weather]]}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.indiawaterportal.org |title= India Water Portal }}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.hcilondon.net/tourism-information/weather.html |title=India—Weather and Climate |work=[[Indian diplomatic missions|High Commission of India, London]]}}
* [http://pushkarv.org/drought/ Drought hit areas in Karnataka, in pictures]

; Maps, imagery, and statistics
* {{cite web |url=http://www.imd.gov.in/ |title=India Meteorological Department |work=[[Government of India]]}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.weather.nic.in/ |title=Weather Resource System for India |work=[[National Informatics Centre]] |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070429135833/http://www.weather.nic.in/ |archivedate=2007-04-29 }}

; Forecasts
* {{cite web |url=http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/IN_cc.html |title=India: Current Weather Conditions |work=[[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]] (NOAA)}}
{{refend}}
{{Asia topic|Drought in}}

[[Category:Climate of India]]
[[Category:Droughts in Asia|India]]
[[Category:Natural disasters in India]]

Drought in India - Revision history

imported>Abm1994 at 23:42, 18 June 2025