CLIMATIC VARIABILITY AND DROUGHT IN RAJASTHAN - Advances in Geosciences - page 57

CLIMATIC VARIABILITY AND DROUGHT
IN RAJASTHAN
ABHINEETY GOEL ∗ andR.B.SINGH †
Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics
University of Delhi, Delhi — 110007, India
∗ [e-mail]
† [e-mail]
In 2002, the Government of India acknowledged severe drought and scarcity
in all 32 districts of Rajasthan. It recognized large number of deaths in Baran
district as a result of this situation. This paper presents a case study of severe
drought in Baran district, as resulting from climatic variability in southeast
part of Rajasthan. It further evaluates the post-drought impact on the liveli-
hood security of Saharia tribe, Rajasthan's only primitive tribe.
1. Introduction
As the elusive southwest monsoon played truant around India, many states
have faced a gloomy harvest and a year of food shortages and drought.
Rajasthan, one of the western states of India, faces the problem of drought
more frequently than any part of the world. It has faced drought for 44
of the last 50 years. The arid climatic condition and ever degrading land
use practices are the major culprits behind these recurring phenomena of
drought. Loss of lives and property and subsequent out-migration is the
result and thereby putting pressure on the economic condition of the state.
A major drought affected Rajasthan in 1987-1988, when the country faced
the worst drought of the century. A decade later, the state suffered severe
drought conditions for three successive years: 1998-1999, 1999-2000 and
2000-2001. 2002 was the fifth consequent year of drought. In 2002, 32, dis-
tricts, a total of 41,711 villages and 45 millions of population were affected. 1
Although the whole state was affected by the drought, some districts in
western Rajasthan, like Barmer, Jaisalmer, and Jodhpur were hit severely
because of the fragile agro-ecology of the region. But surprisingly, Baran
district, situated in the southeast, which experiences abundant rainfall, was
also adversely affected by the drought. The present paper is an attempt to
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