75% districts in India vulnerable to climate crisis, face risk of floods: Report

The study estimates that over 75% of the Indian districts, including 95% of coastal ones, are extreme event hotspots.

Updated on: Oct 27, 2021, 03:52:58 IST

By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A new study has found that 25 of 35 Indian states and Union territories are highly vulnerable to climate crisis-induced “hydro-met” disasters (floods and drought), with Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Bihar being the most at risk.

Around 45% of these districts have undergone unsustainable landscape and infrastructure changes, a reason for increase in climate vulnerability of these districts. (PTI)

The study based on climate vulnerability mapping of 640 districts in India (according to 2011 census; as of 2021, there were 748) based on rainfall and drought data said that 80% of Indians live in these climate disaster prone districts. The study estimates that over 75% of the Indian districts, including 95% of coastal ones, are extreme event hotspots. Around 45% of these districts have undergone unsustainable landscape and infrastructure changes, a reason for increase in climate vulnerability of these districts.

The study was released on Tuesday, a week before the start of a United Nations climate conference, known as COP26, in Glasgow, where developing countries such as India are expected to demand ramping up of climate finance to help them adapt to climate change.

Rich countries have failed to deliver on their promise of $100 billion every year by 2020, according to a UN report released on Monday.

The developed world has now shifted the deadline to meet the promise to 2023, blaming Covid-19 induced economic slowdown, according to a Reuters report quoting a meeting of finance ministers of G20 countries.

“Combating the rising frequency and scale of extreme climate events is fiscally draining for developing countries such as India. At COP26, developed countries must regain trust by delivering the $100 billion promised in 2009 and commit to stepping up climate finance over the coming decade,” said Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive officer of Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a New Delhi-based think tank that conducted the study.

Enhanced climate finance can also support India-led global agencies such as the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) to further mainstream climate actions and adaption, Ghosh said.

The study found that Dhemaji and Nagaon in Assam, Khammam in Telangana, Gajapati in Odisha, Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh, Sangli in Maharashtra, and Chennai in Tamil Nadu were among India’s most climate crisis vulnerable districts. The study also found that districts in the hill states of Uttarakhand, where 72 people had died in extreme rainfall events in mid October, and Himachal Pradesh, which has seen a 30% increase in extreme rainfall events this year till August, were more vulnerable than ever to climate crisis induced extreme rainfall events.

Further, 59% and 41% of the total districts in the eastern and western states, respectively, are highly vulnerable to severe cyclones, the study said.

Only 63% of districts have a District Disaster Management Plan (DDMP) and only 32% of them had updated the plans till 2019, the study found.

“Our analysis suggests that India’s western and central zones are more vulnerable to drought-like conditions and their compounding impacts. The northern and north-eastern zones are more vulnerable to extreme flood events and their compounding impacts. India’s eastern and southern zones are highly vulnerable to extreme cyclonic events and their impacts and are also becoming extremely prone to cyclones, floods, and droughts combined,” said the study, titled Mapping India’s Climate Vulnerability: A District wise Assessment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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