Essay on Drought

Drought? Drought is a long period without rain, and sometimes droughts also causes famine. Droughts likely to happen in hot and dry climates. Here we are providing essay on drought so you can prepare your kid to win any essay competition or this can also help them in their school examination.

Drought Essay in 200 Words (Effects Of Drought)

Drought is refer to a condition of prolonged climatic dryness that is enough to reduce the soil moisture below the level necessary for sustaining animals, plants and human life. The term ‘drought’ is defined as an extended period when there is a shortage of water availability due to inadequate excessive rate of evaporation and over-utilization of water from the reservoirs, including the ground water. A drought can last for months or years.

Types of droughts that occurs in India

1. Meteorological Drought
2. Agricultural Drought
3. Soil Moisture Drought
4. Hydrological Drought
5. Socio-Economic Drought
6. Ecological Drought

 

The Drought Prone Areas in India is divided into following categories:

1. Extreme Drought Prone Areas includes Parts of Rajasthan to west of the Aravali hills and Kachchh region of Gujarat.
2. Severe Drought Prone Areas includes Eastern Rajasthan, Most area of Madhya Pradesh, eastern part of Maharashtra, Northern part of interior Tamil Nadu, interior part of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana Plateau, Southern Jharkhand and interior Odisha.
3. Moderate Drought Prone Areas includes Northern Rajasthan, Southern Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, some regions of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and remaining parts of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
4. Free or Less Prone Areas includes remaining parts of India.

Drought Essay in 300 Words (Drought In India)

Drought is a major natural disaster like Flood, Earthquake, Hurricanes. But of all the weather-related economic impacts droughts are second only to hurricanes in the damage they cause. A drought is not just a few missed rainfalls . It’s a long time when rainfall is lower than average, usually for more than a season. It usually occur when temperature is higher than normal temperatures. It can also be caused by Human activities like overusing of water or over-populating an area to the point where the water available is outstripped by what is needed.

Droughts are of several types, including

Meteorological droughts : It is caused by changing weather such as wind patterns, changing sea temperatures or air temperatures. Meteorological droughts are droughts that compare precipitation to a historical average. Human-caused climate change are main reason of meteorological droughts in some regions.

Agricultural droughts : It occur when water amounts is less than what is needed by the crops. So, the amount of water in reservoirs, the soil and groundwater are factors responsible for agricultural droughts.

Hydrological droughts : It is caused because of low amounts of water in natural systems. They are tied closely to meteorological droughts. Streams, lakes, reservoirs, groundwater, rivers, and even the snowpack in the mountains are factors of hydrological drought.

Socio-Economic drought : It occurs when demands of people for water is higher than the amount of water available. Lacking enough drinking water or enough for watering lawns can cause socio-economic drought.

So, Water conservation is one of the easiest ways to reduce the impacts of drought. Simple everyday tasks, such as turning off the water while brushing teeth or reusing of water, Rain water harvesting is yet another great idea that help in saving gallons of water in a month.

Drought Essay in 500 Words (Causes Of Drought)

What is Drought? Drought is defined as lack of precipitation over a long period of time, usually a season or more that resulting in a shortage of water for various activities, groups or environmental sector. Its impacts result from the interplay between the natural event and the demand of water by the people.

There are seven types of Droughts:

1. Meteorological Drought : It is a situation when the seasonal rainfall received over an area is 75% reduced to its long term average value.
2. Hydrological Drought: It is a situation when stream flows are inadequate to supply established use of water under a given water management system. There are two types of hydrological droughts including surface water drought and ground water drought.
3. Agricultural drought: It is a situation when amount of water is less then the needed amount by crops and fall in agricultural productivity
4. Soil Moisture Drought: It is a situation of inadequate soil moisture particularly in rain fed areas which may not support crop growth.
5. Socio-Economic Drought: It is a situation when abnormal water shortage affects all socio-economic aspects of a region creating unemployment and reduction of availability of food and income loss on account of crop failures.
6. Ecological Drought: Ecological drought occurs when the productivity of a natural eco-system fails significantly as a consequence of distress result in environmental damage.
7. Famine: A famine occurs when large scale damage result in extreme and general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large geographical area.

IMD has further classified droughts into categories i.e. a severe drought when the lack of rainfall exceeds 50% of the normal rainfall and c drought when the lack of rainfall is between 25%- 50% of the normal rainfall. Out of the total geographical area of India, almost 1/6^th area with 12% of the total population is drought prone. Most of the drought-prone areas are found in arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid regions of the country, which receives less than average annual rainfall.

The most drought prone areas of India are North-West region of India and some parts of West Central India. The reason are unique to each area, like North-western area receives the residual rain from the monsoon as monsoon time over the region is nearly 2 months. Peninsular is leeward side of western ghat so it also receives very little rain adding to it the area lacks irrigation and local specific irrigation like tank irrigation is not possible in those areas. Adding to the low rainfall the crops like cotton and sugarcane are not suitable for that agro region in marathwada which demand very high water. Other drought prone areas includes the Kutch in Gujrat and the thar desert region which cannot be fully rectified, what can be done is to reduce the impact like using irrigation methods and crops suitable for that region.

Main reasons causing Drought are:

1. Inadequate monsoon and below average rainfall due to absence of depressions over India.
2. Late onset or early withdrawal of monsoons.
3. Extended breaks in monsoon.
4. Re-establishment of southern branch of jet stream.