Year: 2019, Issue: December
Monitoring and evaluation indicators for reducing physical, social and environmental vulnerability with respect to community perception on climate change - Case study of Almora, Uttarakhand
Author:
Ashish Kumar Panda, Anil K. Gupta and Amarjeet Kaur
Keyword:
Vulnerability, Indicators, Evaluation, Community, Climate change.
Indian Sub-continent is highly vulnerable to Climate Change and Climate Induced disasters. Indian economy critically depends on climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, tourism, forests, animal husbandry, fisheries etc. Northern Himalayan State of Uttarakhand, is facing problems of soil erosion, landslides, prolonged dry spells, glacier recession, erratic precipitation, extreme climate events etc. very frequently. Local community bears the brunt of any climatic disaster and therefore to understand the perception of the local community of Uttarakhand with respect to the issues of Climate Change and associated vulnerabilities (physical, social and environmental), a questionnaire was developed. Hill station of Almora was chosen as the study area due to its climatic sensitivity. Face to face basis focused group discussions were held with villagers of 12 villages of Almora. Simultaneously, telephonic interview was held with 55 Gram Pradhans of all the 11 Blocks of Almora to arrive a prime vulnerability indicators. Further, monitoring and evaluation parameters, based on real time issues in the vulnerability areas have been suggested in this study. The finding of this study indicates 11 different vulnerability indicators, which were arrived after focused group discussion and telephonic interviews with the village community of Almora. Their day to day problems, concerned areas and possible measures to reduce the vulnerability were discussed and based on that, possible 74 different parameters of monitoring and evaluation have came out as takeaway from this research exercise. If these parameters could be integrated into the District Disaster Management Plan (DDMP) and local Panchayat Level developmental activities, a climate resilient sustainable development can be assured.