A disaster management report has revealed that the state has witnessed abrupt changes in the climate over the years and 13 districts here are among 100 districts in India which have been declared as multi-hazard districts.”
“Majority areas of the valley, especially Sonawari, Awantipora and Srinagar, along with parts of Jammu are prone to floods. Upper catchments of all the tributaries of the Jhelum, Indus, Chenab and Tawi rivers are prone to flash floods,” the report said.
All these areas were worst hit by September-2014 floods and are prone to fresh floods.
The study has been jointly undertaken by some IITs including that of Guwahati as well as Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Forest Conservation) Government of Karnataka. It says that the states of Assam, Mizoram and Jammu & Kashmir are extremely vulnerable to global warming.
“Based on this assessment, the vulnerability index is found to be the highest for Assam (0.72) and Mizoram (0.71), 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 is the least vulnerable state with the index being 0.42,” the study says.
“Several drivers of vulnerability are evident for the state of J&K. These include, in the order of significance, least road density, no area under crop insurance, low area under forests per 1,000 rural households, high percentage of marginal farmers, low percentage area under horticulture crops, low livestock to human ratio and low percentage of women in the overall workforce,” the study added
The study further noted that climate change is already occurring and impacting natural “ecosystems and human societies.”
“To reduce these uncertainties and plan towards sustainable development it is essential to adopt evidence based adaptation planning. This requires an in-depth understanding of the key risks and vulnerabilities derived from scientific assessments,” it added.
