Vulnerability is the potential for loss or the extent to which an individual, community or place can be affected because of a disaster.
India can be divided into natural disaster vulnerability zones based on droughts as under:
1. Extreme drought-affected areas: These are the parts of Rajasthan, Aravalli hills and Kutch region in Gujarat.
2. Severe drought-prone areas: These are parts of Eastern Rajasthan, most parts of Madhya Pradesh, eastern parts of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and northern Tamil Nadu.
3. Moderate drought-affected areas: These are northern Rajasthan, Haryana, southern Uttar Pradesh, remaining parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and part of Tamil Nadu.
Measures to mitigate:
1. Identification of groundwater potential in the form of aquifers.
2. Transfer of river water from the surplus to the deficit areas and particularly planning for interlinking of rivers.
3. Construction of reservoirs and dams etc.
4. Remote sensing and satellite imageries can be useful in identifying the possible river basins that can be interlinked.
