GUWAHATI: According to a report by the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) released by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) on October 26 stated that Assam is the state most vulnerable to extreme climate events such as floods, droughts, and cyclones in India.
The report states unsustainable landscape, lack of infrastructure planning, and human-induced microclimate change as the leading factors of this high vulnerability. Amongst the top 20 most vulnerable districts of India, Dhemaji tops the chart.
The report, Mapping India’s Climate Vulnerability- A District-Level Assessment, India's first-of-its-kind district-level climate vulnerability assessment, presents a CVI of states and Union Territories (UTs) by mapping exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. It is aimed to map critical vulnerabilities, and plan strategies to enhance resilience and adapt by climate-proofing communities, economies, and infrastructure.
Amongst the top 20 most vulnerable districts of India, 4 are from Assam including, Dhemaji, Nagaon, Lakhimpur, and Darrang.
Amongst the top flood hotspots are Kamrup, Lakhimpur, Karbi Anglong, Hailakandi, Tinsukia, Dhemaji of Assam. The drought hotspots in India include Goalpara, Morigaon, Nalbari, Darrang, Barpeta, Sivasagar, and Cachar. Nagaon is named as one of the cyclone hotspots of the country.
As per the report, more than 80 percent of India's population lives in districts highly vulnerable to extreme hydro-met disasters.
The report further states that out of the 35 states and UTs in India, 27 are extremely vulnerable to hydro-met disasters. The analysis has suggested that 74 percent of all Indian districts are vulnerable to extreme climate events.
The study found that only 63 percent of districts in India have District Disaster Management Plans (DDMP), of which only 32 percent were updated as of 2019. Most DDMPs acknowledge multiple hazards but none of them captures common trends among hazards. Only 17 percent of districts have a well-structured preparedness strategy that is explicitly mentioned in the DDMP.
"Decision-makers must ensure effective and implementable DDMPs to build adaptive and resilient capacity," the authors of the report Abinash Mohanty and Shreya Wadhawan wrote.
