Environment: At least eight Indian states—Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, and West Bengal—are highly vulnerable to climate change. They will need to prioritise adaptation interventions, according to a national climate vulnerability assessment report. More than 60 percent of highly vulnerable districts identified are found in Assam, Bihar, and Jharkhand.
The report titled Climate Vulnerability Assessment for Adaptation Planning in India Using a Common Framework identifies the most vulnerable states and districts in India with respect to current climate risk and key drivers of vulnerability. It was released by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
A total of 94 representatives from 24 states and two union territories participated in the nationwide exercise jointly supported by the DST and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
According to the report, lack of forest area was found to be one of the major drivers of vulnerability for Assam despite the fact that it has a forest cover of 42 percent. The second driver of vulnerability was identified as low road density.
In the case of Bihar, the report cited poor health infrastructure to be the key vulnerability driver in 36 districts. Lack of alternative livelihood opportunities due to poor implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was another key driver in 14 districts of Bihar, followed by a lack of women’s participation in the workforce in 11 districts.
In Jharkhand, lack of crop insurance and rainfed agriculture were the key drivers of vulnerability.
States such as Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim, and Punjab have been categorised as lower-middle vulnerable states. Uttarakhand, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Nagaland, Goa, and Maharashtra have been categorised as states with low vulnerability.
“We have seen how extreme events are on rise both in terms of their number and severity. Mapping the parts of India that are vulnerable to such changes will help initiating climate actions at the ground level,” said Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST.
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