DROUGHTS AND FLOOD IN INDIA

DROUGHTS AND FLOOD IN INDIA
The erratic nature of the monsoon rains oc­casions droughts that occur once every five years on an average. Droughts affect about 35 per cent of the country's area receiving less than 75 cm of rainfall on an average and with poor irrigation facilities. The regions identified as drought-prone areas are: 0.37 million sq km area to the east of the Western Ghats along Krishna river at a dis­tance of about 80 km from the coast; the semi­arid and desert regions extending between Ahmedabad, Jullundhur and Kanpur; the Coimbatore and Tirunelveli areas in Tamil Nadu; Kutch and Saurashtra; Kalahandi, Orissa; Purulia, West Bengal; and the Mirzapur plateau.

The worst drought experienced by India oc­curred in 1877. The rainfall departure in 1877 was -79 per cent which had a spread of over 66.8 per cent of the area. In recent times droughts have occurred in 1979, 1982, and as close as 2000. The drought of 1979 had an adverse impact on about 200 million people in Eastern Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.

The drought of 1982 was characterised by monsoon departure of -13.7 per cent and having an adverse affect on 46.4 per cent of the area and almost 100 million people of Rajasthan, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. A 'phe­nomenal' drought took place in 1987 when the departure of rainfall was -19.3 per cent and the area suffering from deficient rainfall was 64.3 per cent. Among the victims were about 285 million people and 168 million cattle in 15 States and 6 Union Territories. Saurashtra, Kutch, Diu, the western part of Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana suffered tremen­dously.

The occurrence of drought does not always have a link with the occurrence of rainfall in a particular region. In recent years, Cherrapunji which receives the highest amount of rainfall in the world was also facing drought conditions due to lack of water harvesting methods.

In the first quarter of the year 2000, large parts of the country were hit by drought. Some fourteen states reported drought or drought-like conditions of varying magnitude. The worst hit were Rajasthan (in which 2.6 crore people in 23,000 villages in 26 districts were affected), Andhra Pradesh (3 crore people in 17,000 villages in 18 districts) and Gujarat (2.5 crore people in 8,000 villages in 17 districts). Parts of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura also came under some stress, as did some districts of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and West Bengal which reported severe scarcity of water.

The irregularity of the monsoons has made India one of the worst flood-affected countries in the world. Heavy rainfall, cyclones, the overflowing of river waters, an elevation of the riverbeds, changes in the course of rivers and poor drainage facilities cause floods every year in about 25 to 50 per cent of the 2.42-crore-hectare land identified as prone to floods. But river floods cause about 60 per cent of floods in India-the two great river systems of the Ganga and Brahmaputra being mainly responsible. Floods are generally identified with the basins of the Himalayan rivers, the north-western riv­ers-the Beas, Ravi, Chenab, Jhelum, Sutlej, and those of central India. States most affected by floods are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat. In the South, the deltas of the Godavari and Krishna have also suffered floods from time to time.

Floods in these areas also result from incessant rains and the occurrence of high tides at the time when the rivers are in spate. Some other causes of floods are the deforested catchment areas of the rivers, and the offshore bars which choke the mouths of the rivers and obstruct the free flow of water into the sea. Under various schemes of flood control protection has been provided through creation of storage dams, drainage channels and by making embankments.

The National Flood Control Programme was launched in 1954. It provides protection works in all flood-prone areas. The National Flood Control Policy comprises three phases: (i) immediate phase extending over a period of 2 years and comprising collection of basic hydrologic data, construction of embankments, urgent spurs, rivetments, improvement of river channels and raising of villages above flood level, (ii) short-term phase cov­ering the next 4 to 5 years consisting of improvement of surface drainage, establishment of flood warning systems, shifting or raising of villages above the flood level, construction of building channel diversions, more embankment, and construction of raised platforms to be used during times of flood emergency; (iii) long-term phase which envisages schemes such as construction of dams or storage reservoirs for flood protection and soil conservation in the catchments of various rivers, and digging larger channel diversions.

Flood forecasting systems in India have been set up at Surat on the Tapti, Baruch on the Narmada, Varanasi, Buxar, Patna, Axambad-all on the Ganga, Dibrugarh and Gauhati on the Brahmaputra, Jalpaiguri on the Teesta, Delhi on Yamuna, Bhubaneshwar on the Subarnarekha and Burha Balang, Brahmani and Baitarni in Orissa, and the Sahibi for Rajasthan, and Gandhinagar on Chambal.