In order to identify drought tolerant genotypes and study the pattern of segregation for drought, 28 elite sugarcane hybrids and 165 progenies from a proven commercial cross (Co 740 9 Co 775) were evaluated for sugar yield attributes and biochemical parameters under normal and drought conditions. In the genotypes, higher reduction in drought in relation to the normal condition were observed for internode length (45.76 %), single cane weight (25.5 %), NMC (22.8 %), cane length (20.10 %) and sucrose content (18.73 %), while cane diameter (2.92 %), internode number (3.58 %) and Brix (-6.99 %) showed marginal variation. Similar reduction in cane height (35.05 %) and internode length (25.13 %) in the progenies indicated that cane length was more adversely affected by drought and the reduction was through shortening of internodes than reduction in internode number.