Abstract:
Drought is one of the most disastrous natural calamities that have affected human beings, agriculture and livestock throughout the history. Drought is characterized by deficit in water availability resulting either from sub-normal rainfall, erratic rainfall distribution, higher water requirements or a combination of all these factors. Under drought conditions, the management strategies need to he different than the normal times and there is a great need to evolve planning and operation tools for the same. Drought indices, deficit of rainfall, starting period, severity and termination are the important parameters to he analyzed, in order to evolve a more realistic planning far the mitigation of the drought. In this paper, the definition of drought, identification of droughts and their characterization have been elaborated with a case study of a drought affected district. Subsequently, the important strategies for the planning and management of water resources during drought situations are highlighted.
