At least 70 per cent of 100 most climate change vulnerable districts in the country are in the five States of eastern India - Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. Outlining this, scientists on Friday called for the urgent need to put in place a multi-hazard warning system, implement local action along with better coordination at inter-agency, inter-ministerial and Centre-State levels to combat the global warming-induced threat.
“Overall, eight States in the country viz., Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, and West Bengal, all in the Eastern India are found to have higher vulnerability. However, out of country’s 100 most vulnerable districts, 70 per cent are in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa,” said Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Adviser and Head, Policy Coordination & Programme Management Division, and a climate change expert at the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
He was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day policy dialogue on ‘Localizing Climate Resilience Agenda: Vision 2050 and 2100’ under CAP-RES DST-GOI Project on Friday here.
“As projected by the recent Working group-I report of IPCC, the global temperature which has already increased to 1.1 degree C above the pre-industrial era level is likely to further increase to 1.5-deg. C in next 2 decades. India too is expected to experience greater impact of global warming in the time to come, There may be an increase in frequency, severity and duration of heat wave.
“Monsoon may become more erratic. There may be more frequent droughts and floods. The Indian seas may witness the more sea-level rise. There has already been increase in sea level in last two decades.. With the increase of carbon dioxide content in the oceans, the sea water may become more acidic, and so on” Dr Gupta pointed out at the programme organized by National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Ministry of Home Affairs and DST in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
“Next two decades are going to be very crucial. IPCC‘s working group report gives the starkest of warnings for global climate impacts. The two-degree rise in global temperatures may come earlier than expected. It may have a huge impact on India, especially on agriculture, health and water security. India is confronted with a challenge of addressing such impacts,” he added.
“Science and technology is a major tool to fight the menace of climate change. Of late, hazards are not happening in isolation but in combination with two or more. There is urgent need to put in place a multi-hazard warning system, along with better coordination at inter-agency, inter-ministerial and Centre-State levels. India made some excellent progress in climate action both in adaptation and mitigation areas,” he pointed out.
Maj. Gen. MK Bindal, Executive Director, NIDM, MHA, warned that the danger mark has been reached, rapid access to information is needed to protect lives and livelihood and the use of STI is key to fight climate change problems.
“The sixth IPCC report has pushed the button to act now, and it is time to act locally. Good policies need to be translated into action. We are working with state governments for localising action plan,” said Christiane Hieronymus, Head of Economic Cooperation & Development, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany while Prof V K Sharma, Vice Chairman, Sikkim SDMA said that, “We will have to do something at local level, at the municipal level with regional and local approach and also at the panchayat level.”
Kamal Kishore, Member, NDMA, urged for action with much greater vision, diversifying risks and continuous policy revisions while Prof Anil K Gupta, Head, ECDRM Division, NIDM, discussed ways of translating the concerns to local action.
