Eastern India most vulnerable to climate change, says study

The greenest a part of India is the most vulnerable to climate change, a study by two Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has revealed.

Along with Chhattisgarh in central India, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Assam, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, and West Bengal — all within the jap a part of the nation — are the eight most vulnerable States that require prioritisation of adaptation interventions, the report by IISc, IIT-Mandi and IIT-Guwahati mentioned.

Tamil Nadu and Kerala are amongst seven States which can be the least vulnerable however there’s extra to it meets the attention. The vulnerability indices (VIs) for these States vary from the bottom of 0.419 for Maharashtra to 0.468 for Uttarakhand, which the specialists concerned within the study mentioned is on the upper facet.

Published this week, the report on ‘Climate vulnerability assessment for adaptation planning in India using a common framework’ was carried out in 2019-2020 throughout 29 States “considering the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir”. It was a part of a capability constructing programme below the National Mission on Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem and National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change.

The main drivers for the vulnerability of all of the States included lack of forest space per 1,000 rural inhabitants, lack of crop insurance coverage, marginal and small operational land holding, low density of well being staff, low participation of ladies within the workforce, yield variability of meals grains, and a excessive proportion of the inhabitants beneath the poverty line.

Jharkhand, with the very best VI of 0.674, topped the record of States most vulnerable to climate change. Among the drivers of its vulnerability is the excessive incidence of vector-borne illnesses, excessive yield variability of meals grains, and low highway and rail density.

Some of Jharkhand’s drivers have been discovered related for second-placed Mizoram. But whereas this northeastern State had the very best density of healthcare staff per 1,000 folks, lower than 8% of them have been discovered to be docs.

The main challenge with Odisha, which took the third spot, was the prevalence of marginal and small operational landholdings.

The study additionally revealed 60% of 612 districts (overlaying the identical geographical space as the present 718) assessed are in Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand, in that order. Of these districts most vulnerable to climate change, 24 are in Assam with Karimganj topping the record.

The Climate Change Program of SPLICE (Strategic Programs, Large Initiatives and Coordinated Action Enabler) Division of the Department of Science and Technology coordinated the report in partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Embassy of Switzerland.