Reassessment of drought management policies for India: learning from Israel, Australia, and China

摘要

Abstract Drought is a gradually creeping complex ecological challenge that affects people more than any other natural hazards by causing tremendous loss to agriculture, environment, and other sectors. Occurrence of drought is a common phenomenon in India, as it faces its manifestation once in every three to four years. Even though India has comprehensive drought management strategy however, vulnerabilities to droughts in the dry regions still persists, owing to the lack of resilience capacity of the communities. Government usually reacts to drought through relief measures that include providing subsidized food and drinking water supply, organizing fodder camps, crop-loss compensation, etc. Most of these actions are carried out in an environment of crisis management, rather than proactively working on reducing the vulnerabilities and enhancing the resilience of the rural communities, the approach which has been practiced since many years in Israel and Australia, and more recently in China. This paper reviews the policies, programs, and strategies of drought management in Israel, Australia, and China and the key learnings from best practices of these countries are offered for India to improve its approach to drought management. Development of technologically advanced means for drought monitoring and supply of timely and reliable information to people, preparedness through infrastructure development involving public private partnership, enforcing regulations for water demand management, and prompt relief measures are suggested for India.