Drought in India

[citation needed] Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on the country's climate: a favorable monsoon is critical to securing water for irrigating India's crops.

[1] This is particularly true of major drought-prone regions southeastern Maharashtra, northern Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Telangana, and Rajasthan.

Already, rises in average temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns, increasing frequency of extreme weather events, such as severe droughts and floods, and the shifting of agricultural seasons have been observed in different agro-ecological zones of India.

Long drought spells during Kharif and increased temperatures and unseasonal heavy rains during the rabi season have caused serious distress to the farming communities in different states in recent years.

[9] The extent that an ENSO event raises sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean influences the degree of drought.