India 50 Years of Independence: 1947-97 Status, Growth & Development- Drought (Part-11)

Preface Every year when the summer is on alerge part of r Sujathan in the north to Tamil Nads in the south has to under hot spells of intense temperature Sometim giving any set-up by the monsoon rain, it takendum by creeping of the drought in the tomate. The single most devastating nahral event that indeed befall our beautiful from time to time is this drought somatis. The drought which occurred last in 1997 was so widespread and s particularly in its Norwestem Region that it end the need for investigating physical causes of drought, the mag tudes, the impacts of drought on people, their instutions, reconstructions of drought history and above all the drought contingency planning for mitigating the possible wont effects of future droughts.

There has been a perception of drought in mind of people across the developed and developing countries but regating the concept of drought considerable disagnement exits. The present work entitled as "Drought Profile in India" starts with understanding the drought phenomenon through the numer ous definitions of drought to determine those characteristics which can be considered most essential for studying it by proper dimensions. It is found there is an "enigma" in percep tions of drought and it suggests that the concept of drought should not be formulated in a narrow sense but rather it should go by its ecology of drought in incorporating the meteorological, hydrological-, agricultural-and socio-economic parameters that have a local or a regional significance.

For facilitating systematic study of drought it was realized that drought should be taken up in a systems context with interrelations between the physical and social factors. Meteorologically, drought, being the failure of expected rainfall over a period, long enough, for it to hurt, is derived from the atmosphere-ocean continent system. In that way each drought is unique in its set of physical characteristics as well as in its geographic scope and location.

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