We know that when a drought occurs there is an acute shortage of water As water supply is reduced, the reservoirs of water turn empty, as a result, wells dry up and there is widespread damage to crops. Let us now look some of the factors that cause droughts, and how it affects our lives.

The drought-prone regions of India, are dry and semi-dry of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, south Karnataka, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, central Maharashtra, Kerala, Bihar, and Orissa.

Droughts, that take place in India can be broadly divided into two categories

1. Severe droughts
2. General droughts

When the average rainfall is less than 50 % of the average rainfall of that area, it is termed severe drought. However, the average rainfall is less than 25 % of the average rainfall of that area, it is termed as general droughts.

Based on the features and causes, the droughts can be divided into three types

• The seasonal droughts
• The water droughts
• The agricultural droughts.

The seasonal drought occurs when there is little rain for a prolonged period. Lack of water in water resources like lakes, rivers are called water drought and Lack of crops is called agricultural droughts.

Let us now understand the various factors behind the droughts.

1. The most important reason for droughts is scares or no rain for a prolonged period of time
2. Destruction of forests is another reason for droughts. The cutting of trees leads to a situation known as global warming. In this kind of situation, the temperature of the earth sharply and causes less rainfall.
3. Overuse of agricultural land, is another cause of the drought. More and more agricultural land is being used to support the growing population. As farmers grow more crops, the land becomes unfit for vegetation, and less vegetation also leads to droughts. Also growing more crops requires more groundwater, which results in the depletion of water levels, which is accompanied by the absence of rain and leads to droughts.

a. Farmers are the worst victim of droughts.
b. Scarcity of food grains leads to starvation in the villages.
c. Cattle breeding in the villages also suffers, due to lack of water.

Let us see how we can cope with droughts.

1. We can store rainwater to prevent drought, to do this we can dig ponds to store the rainwater
2. We can also build dams to collect the access rainwater
3. We should plant more trees to avoid droughts
4. Water supply to the agricultural fields can be increased through rainwater harvesting, canal irrigation, and building contour bunds.
5. Farmers can also insure their crops, to prevent losses during droughts.

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