In revised policy, TN drought to be studied under 7 categories

Similar to flood mitigation policy, this will help in increasing the ground water table in all districts and protect water bodies, a senior state official said. As per the revised policy, the drought is now categorised into seven categories such as meteorological, hydrological and agricultural.

According to State disaster management sources, drought is still largely unpredictable and varies with regard to the time of occurrence, duration, intensity and extent of the area affected, thus inviting detailed monitoring. The severity of the drought can also be aggravated by other climatic factors such as high temperature, high wind and low humidity. All these parameters will now come under the study. Drought conditions can be predicted only by closely monitoring actual rainfall received and occurrence of dry spell during the monsoon periods. The guidelines for declaration of drought were revised in 2016, sources said.

The massive desiltation exercise throughout the state, (except greater Chennai covering Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram) has enhanced the water holding capacity of TN water bodies by about 2 TMC and the water managers are just waiting for the rains to occur, informed PWD sources said.