‘Around 60% of Indian districts vulnerable to climate change’

NEW DELHI: Around 60% of the Indian districts are vulnerable to climate change, a new assessment has found, claiming it could adversely impact food production if adequate climate proofing is not done.

Agriculture is the biggest livelihood source for around 60% of the population directly or indirectly dependent on it. Trends in recent years have shown declining production in rain-fed farm land that is more vulnerable to climate change induced rising temperature and irregular rainfall. Over the last 100 years, the average temperature in India has risen by close to 2°Celsius and extreme weather events like flash floods and drought have increased, the IMD data show.

Many districts in states such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and eastern Uttar Pradesh are highly vulnerable to climate change, says the assessment to be published in the Centre for Science and Environment’s State of India’s Environment Report 2017 on June 5.

The first ground level vulnerability index has been derived from 38 parameters that include rainfall pattern, temperature rise, extreme weather events, degradation of land and agriculture workforce. The index divides the states into three categories — exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capability.

As many as 12 states, mostly in western and central parts of India, fall under the category highly sensitive to climate change on account of drought and cyclone.

Twenty one states, most of them in peninsular India, are highly exposed to climate change risks based on decadal variance in maximum and minimum temperatures and number of rainy days