Drought-prone areas of India

Geography glossary

Topic: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in India · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Natural Hazards and Disasters: Causes, Consequences and Management"; Class 12, Ch 6 "Planning and Sustainable Development in Indian Context"

Meaning

These are the parts of India where drought comes again and again. About 30% of India's area is drought-prone, affecting about 50 million people (NCERT).

  • Extreme drought: Rajasthan west of the Aravalis (Marusthali) and Kachchh. Jaisalmer and Barmer get under 90 mm of rain a year.
  • Severe drought: eastern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra, interior Andhra, the Karnataka plateau, northern interior Tamil Nadu, southern Jharkhand and interior Odisha.
  • Moderate drought: northern Rajasthan, Haryana, southern Uttar Pradesh and the rest of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Central and western India get little rain because they lie in the rain shadow (the dry side of mountains) and at the far edge of the monsoon. An area where more than 30% of the gross cropped area is irrigated is left off the list.

Example

Barmer in western Rajasthan lies in the Thar desert, west of the Aravalis. It gets less than 90 mm of rain a year, so it is in the extreme drought zone.

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