Here is your short paragraph on droughts!
Drought is a temporary reduction in water or moisture availability significantly below the normal or expected amount for a specific period.
According to High Powered Committee on Disaster Management Report, “Any lack of water to satisfy the normal needs of agricultural, livestock, industry or human population may be termed as a drought.”
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This condition occurs either due to inadequacy of rainfall, or lack of irrigation facilities, under-exploitation or deficient availability of water for meeting the normal crop requirements in the context of the agro-climatic conditions prevailing in any particular area. This has been scientifically computed as Moisture Index (MI).
Drought, in this context, can be defined as adverse MI or adverse water balance which may be attributable not only to a prolonged dry spell due to lack of sufficient rainfall but also due to such other factors as excessive evapotranspiration losses, high temperature, low soil holding capacity, etc. The inadequacy is with reference to the prevailing agro-climatic conditions in any particular area.
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Therefore, there is a drought in Jaisalmer (Average rainfall 200 mm) if rainfall is not sufficient to grow grass and paltry coarse-grains, whereas in Bolangir or Koraput (Orissa-rainfall above 1000 mm) there is a drought if there is not enough rainfall for bringing the paddy crop to maturity.
Drought is a distress situation caused by lack of rainfall. The failure of rains may be reviewed from two aspects. Firstly, the rainfall may be insufficient. Secondly it may be sufficient for the region as a whole but with wide gap, separating two wet spells. Thus both the amounts as well as time of rainfall are important. In other words, drought is a relative phenomenon. Therefore, the amount of rainfall is not that important as its effectiveness.