Evaluation of drought hazards and coping strategies adopted by pastoral communities in the Cholistan Rangeland of Pakistan

Drought is a common feature of all rangelands, which directly affects biotic life including local dwellers by various means. These drought-prone dwellers have adopted various strategies to survive in severe weather conditions. These strategies vary according to locality and depend on multiple socioeconomic factors. It is crucial to record different coping mechanisms at the local level to reduce the risks associated with recurring droughts given the forecasts of increased drought impacts in pastoral regions and other social pressures. The objective of this study is to estimate the severity of drought and look at short-term drought coping mechanisms in the Cholistan rangeland and characterize its characteristics. 320 respondents were selected from different areas of the Cholistan rangeland by using a random sampling technique. The Standardized Precipitation Index was used to estimate the severity of drought through rainfall data from 1987 to 2017, obtained from the Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources. The results revealed that severe droughts occurred in Cholistan during the years 1999 (−10), 2002 (−11.6), 2014 (−2.69), 2015 (−2.93), and 2017 (−0.53). Migration, livestock sales, herd splitting, and destocking are the four important short-term coping strategies adopted by pastoralists before and during droughts in Cholistan rangeland with 50.4%, 27.4%, 10.3%, and 11.97% respectively. The chi-square result showed that there is a significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) in strategies adopted by pastoralists in different localities, as well as residence and herd size, and also significantly affect (p ≤ 0.05) the strategies adopted by pastoralists from the Cholistan rangelands. Drought in Cholistan is evident through various ecological and socioeconomic effects and pastoralists adopt different measures against drought by mostly relying on existing resources.