Drought management to be part of local planning process

Map of areas prone to drought in State published

In a move aimed at pushing drought management into the planning process at the village level, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) has published a map of the drought-prone areas in the State.

The map, released here on Monday, shows that 2.5 per cent of the total land area of the State across seven districts faces the threat of severe drought. This includes 1.9 per cent of Kozhikode district, 12.1 per cent of Wayanad, 4.5 per cent of Palakkad, 0.2 per cent of Thrissur, 4 per cent of Idukki, 8.4 per cent of Kollam and 4.1 per cent of Thiruvananthapuram.

Roughly 63.8 per cent of the State faces the threat of moderate drought while 23 per cent could be threatened by slight drought conditions. About 10 per cent of the land area faces no threat of drought.

Data relating to rainfall, groundwater status, vegetation and water availability was factored in to calculate the drought-prone areas.

Head Scientist, SEOC, Sekhar L. Kuriakose said the mapping was expected to provide critical inputs for a decentralised drought management plan to replace the ad hoc drought relief measures currently followed.

The SEOC has also released a lightning frequency map highlighting the areas in Kerala most prone to lightning strikes.

Highest incidence

Based on the fatalities caused by lightning, the village-level data shows that Kadakkal and Oachira villages in Kollam district have the highest incidence of at least two deaths per year.

Of the total of 110 deaths caused by lightning strikes from 2010 to 2014, Malappuram district accounted for 20 casualties, followed by Kollam (15), Kannur (11) and Pathanamthitta and Idukki (10 each).

Simultaneously, the SEOC has published two handbooks, one on the natural hazard susceptibility of Kerala and the other on the Emergency Operation Centres in the State.

The first one outlines the areas prone to floods, landslips, coastal erosion, storm surge and tsunami. It also includes a natural hazard zonation map.

Formulated for Revenue officials, the second handbook features the organisational set-up for disaster management including the SEOC and District Emergency Operation Centres, warning systems and standard operating procedures for various incidents like heavy rainfall, cyclone, tsunami, landslip and petrochemical transportation accidents and the VHF communication network to be used for emergency operations.