NEW DELHI: India’s 91 districts face high risks of drought, 51 districts are at high flood risks and 11 face “very high” risks of both, a new report released by the Department of science and technology says, emphasising the need for immediate interventions to address challenges posed by climate change.
The report, titled ‘District-Level Climate Risk Assessment for India: Mapping Flood and Drought Risks Using IPCC Framework,’ has mapped India’s districts to assess climate vulnerability.
“The profiling of hazard-specific risks of districts will enable state governments to prepare proactively and allocate resources, staff and design programmes, fostering resilience in districts most affected by floods and droughts,” the report says.
Besides DST, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation funded the study to address climate change challenges. The study was carried out by the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati in collaboration with IIT Mandi and the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), Bengaluru.
According to the study, about 85% of the districts of Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Odisha, and Jammu and Kashmir are in the “very high” flood risk category. Fifty-one districts face “very high” flood risk and 118 come under ‘high” risk category.
More than 85% of the districts in the ‘very high’ drought risk category belong to Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, and Haryana.
Ninety-one districts facing ‘very high’ drought risk, and 188 districts facing ‘high’ drought risk predominantly belong to Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Odisha and Maharashtra.
Eleven districts facing both ‘very high’ flood and drought risks include Patna (Bihar); Alappuzha (Kerala); Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, South Salmara-Mankachar and Golaghat (Assam); Kendrapara (Odisha); and Murshidabad, Nadia, and Uttar Dinajpur (West Bengal).
“Now challenge is to translate these findings into on-ground actions as essentials, and insights must reach every stakeholder at national and state levels,” said Anita Gupta, head of scientific division, DST.