DST To Extend Climate Vulnerability Assessment To Whole Country After Its Successful Completion For Himalayan States

Department of Science and Technology (DST) will now extend climate vulnerability assessment to all states and union territories (UTs) in the country after successfully producing the first climate change vulnerability map and report of the 12 Himalayan states, reports Mint.

“The project for the 12 Himalayan states is completed and now it would be extended to all other states and union territories. This would enable us to compare vulnerability profiles of all states and prioritize action on climate change," said Dr Akhilesh Gupta, head, climate change programme, Department of Science and Technology (DST).

At present, no such comprehensive assessment report exists for the entire country. Climate change experts state that developing tropical nations like India will be among the worst affected by climate change. Hence it has become imperative to understand the full scale of the challenge ahead of the country before necessary adaptation and mitigation measures are implemented.

“We eventually hope to have a climate portal, whereby users can zoom in on any district in the country and get a sense of what kind of risks — climate, socio-economic — are present,” added Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST.

Assam Most Vulnerable, Sikkim Least

Among the Himalayan states, vulnerability index was found to be the highest for Assam (0.72) and Mizoram (0.71). These two states were followed by Jammu and Kashmir (0.62), Manipur (0.59), Meghalaya and West Bengal (both 0.58), Nagaland (0.57), Himachal Pradesh and Tripura (0.51 both), Arunachal Pradesh (0.47) and Uttarakhand (0.45). Sikkim was the least vulnerable state with the index being 0.42.

It should be noted that vulnerability is a relative measure, which means that this assessment does not portray Sikkim as having a low vulnerability in an absolute sense. The index only shows that Sikkim is relatively less vulnerable when compared to other Himalayan states.

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