The Taliban exploit Afghan farmers' distress to their end the quick rise to power of the Taliban, the most feared and
globally loathed mercenary force, in Afghanistan had the unlikeliest ally - climate change. Climate change combined with political and social unrest is increasingly becoming a deciding factor in that nation’s future. Rural Afghanistan has been at the receiving end of climate change as the past three decades have brought drought and floods alternately, causing massive crop failures. The Taliban cultivated the pain of the people with the promise of prosperity which promptly resulted in the swelling of ranks of the mercenary group. The worsening agricultural conditions in Afghanistan are not a sudden development. A joint study by World Food Program, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and Afghanistan's National Environment Protection Agency revealed that 80 per cent of the nation’s disputes and unrest were linked to natural resources or calamities. Sixty per cent of Afghans are dependent on agriculture. As the nation’s agriculture approached terminal failure, climate change conditions became worse. The 2019 Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index put Afghanistan in 6th position globally as a country most impacted by climate change. At the core of the problem is the farmer whose crops ravaged by sudden floods and drought struggles to survive by borrowing funds to a keep productive farm and healthy livestock. But when the farmer is unable to pay off the debt, the Taliban steps in and capitalizes on the agricultural stress, by sowing seeds of dissension against the Government and offering lucrative bailout packages to the farmers in exchange for their participation in the armed campaigns of the mercenary group. Faced with an offer of $5 to $10 per day, the farmers capitulate and join the Taliban for speedy financial gains. This has become worse after Taliban began inducing the farmers to grow poppy seeds which is a part of lucrative opium trade. This is an unfortunate example of how climate change can become an asset for terrorism and a curse for genuine hard-working farmers.
The instance of terror groups leveraging consequences of climate change for realizing their violent agenda is not limited to Afghanistan. Boko Haram gripped water-scarce Central Africa in 2017 and gained footholds along the Lake Chad Basin. Similarly, ISIS has taken advantage of agrarian communities suffering from extreme drought in Iraq and Syria. Had these regions somehow succeeded in keeping the impacts of climate change at bay, they would have never fell victim to the vagaries posed by the terror groups. However, this is easier said than done as multiple factors, both socio-economic and environmental, are at play in these impoverished regions where political instability and resultant violence are the order of the day. The reality of terror partnering with climate change must not be taken lightly by India as well which is facing the malicious teaming up of Pakistan and China whose disruptive actions will only be strengthened by the arrival of Taliban. The failing monsoons and extreme weather events are already wreaking havoc on the farming community and dependent sectors. The people are already debt-ridden and frustrated which extremist groups operating from across the border must not be allowed to exploit. To avoid providing extremists a “climate change foothold” India must focus on reducing the impacts of environmental deterioration on key economic sectors by providing immediate relief on the one hand, and enabling greater climate change adaption strategies on the other. By itself climate change is enough to create untold miseries for humanity. The addition of a terror angle can spell disaster to say the least. The world in general, and India in particular, must make all possible efforts to stop this partnership dead in its tracks.
(The writer is an environmental journalist. The views expressed are personal.)
