Short Notes - Drought, Disaster Management, Class 8 PDF Download

Facts that Matter

• A drought is a phenomenon in which there is deficiency of surface or sub-surface water and rainfall. Its consequences include acute shortage of water, food, fodder, crop failure and employment.
• Droughts happen when rainfall is below normal in a region.
• Environmental degradation is  a  major  factor  that  intensifies  the  hazard.  Some  causes of droughts are deforestation, loss of biodiversity and excessive use of ground or surface water.
• Drought is one of the most widespread disasters that India faces, since it affects more than 70% of cultivable land. The reaction to droughts is not like disasters like earthquakes,  cyclones  and  floods  (which  are  sudden).  Droughts  develop  over  a  period of time; hence we call it a slow onset disaster.
• The worst affected areas in India are usually Rajasthan and Gujarat. Many other parts of the country are also affected by droughts. 191 out of 543 districts of India are drought-prone.
• People living in rural areas, who wholly depend on agriculture and animal husbandry, are the worst affected and most vulnerable to the hazards of droughts.
• Drought usually affects women more because they do not get to eat much due to scarcity. Other members of the rural families are given priority with whatever food the rural families manage during droughts. l Drought affects employment since a fall in agricultural production leads to a fall in employment opportunities for rural people
• Due to malnutrition in drought seasons, children are severely affected.
• The Indian Meteorological Department forecasts amount of rainfall every year and this indicates possibility of droughts. Since we have ample time, we can try to mitigate the ill-effects. We can reduce the intensity and impact of droughts through collective and individual actions.
•   In the long term, effects of drought can be mitigated by promoting community-based rainwater  harvesting,  watershed  programmes,  increasing  forest  cover,  adopting  droughtresistant crops like paddy, and encouraging seed insurance schemes.
• Students can contribute by conserving water, promoting rainwater harvesting and planting trees.
• Some traditional methods of water conservation include guhls in the western and central Himalayas, bamboo pipes in Meghalaya, ahar-pyne irrigation system in Bihar, Kunds in Thar Desert and surangam in  Malabar  area.
• The volume of water one can conserve at home is equal to the product of area of house and the amount of rainfall. To this we multiply an efficiency factor which indicates how much water is actually conserved.
• If W be the total volume of water consumed in a day by the family members and V be the volume conserved through rainfall, the family can consume the conserved water for V/W days during season of droughts.

Words that Matter

• Droughts. A drought is a phenomenon in which there is deficiency of surface or subsurface water and rainfall.
• Arid Regions. Dry regions that receive scanty rainfall are said to be arid.
• Water Stress. Water stress occurs when the demand for water exceeds the available amount during a certain period or when poor quality restricts its use, and stress causes deterioration of fresh water resources.
• Discharge. The volume of water that passes a given location within a given period of time is called discharge.
• Drip Irrigation. Drip irrigation is an irrigation method in which pipes or tubes filled with water are made to slowly drip on crops.
• Run-Off. Run-off refers to the water flow in the topsoil layer. 
• Raintwater Harvesting. Rainwater harvesting is a method of water conservation in which rain water is stored in appropriate storage places for times of scarcity of water.
• Monoculture. Monoculture is the use of land for growing only one type of plant.