As droughts develop slowly and are caused primarily by continuing deficiency in rainfall or other sources of water, the resulting situation needs to be watched and effective relief action is to be initiated as soon as sowing of seeds or standing crops begin to get affected. Therefore, there is no warning system as such for droughts. However, the Agriculture and Revenue Departments of the states remain watchful during the dry weather seasons and the situation is monitored regularly especially for those areas, which are known to be drought prone due to local climatic conditions, scarcity of ground water and absence of irrigation facilities.