Drought Prone Area Programme

Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) is the “earliest area development programme” launched by the Central Government in 1973-74 to tackle the special problems faced by those fragile areas which are constantly affected by severe drought conditions.

These areas are characterized by large human and cattle populations which are continuously putting heavy pressure on the already fragile natural resources base for food, fodder and fuel.

The major problems are continuous depletion of vegetative cover, increase in soil erosion, fall in ground water levels due to continuous exploitation without any effort to recharge the underground aquifers.

Current Status of DPAP

Please note that in 1977-78, Desert Development Programme (DDP) was launched for hot desert areas of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and cold desert areas of Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Similarly, in 1989, Integrated Watershed Development Programme (IWDP) was launched under the aegis of National Wasteland Development Board for development of wastelands on watershed basis.

In this context, In 1994, a Technical Committee under Chairmanship of Professor C.H. Hanumantha Rao was appointed to appraise the impact of DPAP / DDP and suggest measures for improvement. The committee recommended a common set of operational guidelines and expenditure norms for the three programmes of Ministry of Rural Development.

Accordingly, the Guidelines for watershed Development were framed and brought into force from 1st April 1995. These guidelines were changed in 2001 and further in 2003 and were named ” Haryali Guidelines“. Later, the 11th Plan has stressed upon developing concerted action plans for rainfed areas in close consultation with the State Governments. Accordingly, the Common Guidelines for Watershed Development, 2008 have been issued and made effective from 1.4.2008. Since 26.2.2009, the three watershed programmes of the Department of Land Resources namely DPAP, DDP and IWDP have been consolidated as a comprehensive programme named ‘Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP)‘.

Integrated Wastelands Development Programme

So, at present, the Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP), Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) and Desert Development Programme (DDP) are running as a consolidated single programme named Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) in place of all the above mentioned three Area Development Programmes. (Information related to this topic is outdated in most books). This programme comes under Ministry of Rural Development.