Vulnerability of Tribal Communities to Climate Variability in Lahaul and Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India

Öz

India is home to many physiographic divisions, climatic regions, diverse cultures, and ethnicities. The greater Himalayan and trans-Himalayan regions are home to many tribal communities. However, climatic variability brings new challenges to the tribal households in mountainous regions, particularly in India’s greater Himalayan and trans-Himalayan regions. This study aims to create a Tribal Household Livelihood Vulnerability Index (THLVI) that takes into account factors such as exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. The research focuses on three subdivisions in the Lahaul and Spiti district, namely: Lahaul, Udaipur and Spiti, which are part of the western Himalayas cold deserts. The data for the THLVI was collected from 300 randomly selected households in 62 villages through a survey of indigenous people. The results of the study reveal that the vulnerability of tribal households varies across different socio economic and ecological conditions due to differences in adaptability, sensitivity, and exposure to climate change. In the Lahaul and Udaipur subdivisions, the vulnerabilities of social networks, water, and health were found to be 0.390, 0.262, 0.545, and 0.525, 0.514, 0.512, respectively. The THLVI based on IPCC values ranges from -1 (least vulnerable) to +1 (most vulnerable). For further research, the THLVI index can be used as a tool to assess the livelihood vulnerability of tribal communities living in Himalayan regions, furthermore the sustainable livelihood policies can be formulated in order to strengthen the livelihood security

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Vulnerability
• Climate Change
• Tribal livelihood
• Adaptation
• Himachal Himalayas

Kaynakça

1. Adger, W. N., 2006. Vulnerability. Global Environmental Change, 16, 268-281. https://doi.org/10.10167j.gloenvcha.2006.02.006. google scholar
2. Alam, M., Alam, K., Mushtaq, S., & Clarke, M. L., 2017. Vulnerability to climatic change in ripaıian char and river-bank households in Bangladesh: Implication for policy, livelihoods and social development. Ecological Indicators, 72, 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.06.045. google scholar
3. Alwang, J., Siegel, P. B., and Jorgensen, S. L., 2001. Vulnerability: A view from different disciplines, Washington DC, World Bank. google scholar
4. Aryal, S., Cockfield, G., &Maraseni, T. N. (2014). Vulnerability of Himalayan transhumant communities to climate change. Climatic Change, 125(2), 193-208. google scholar
5. Bhattacharjee, K., & Behera, B., 2018. Determinants of household vulnerability and adaptation to floods: Empirical evidence from the Indian State of West Bengal. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 31,758-769. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.07.017. google scholar
6. Chambers, R., and Conway, G., 1992. Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Practical Concepts for the 21st Century, Institute of Development Studies, UK. google scholar
7. Chen, J.T., Rehkopf, D.H., Waterman, P.D., Subramanian, S.V., Coull, B.A., Cohen, B., Ostrem, M., Krieger, N., 2006. Mapping and measuring social disparities in premature mortality: the impact of census tract poverty within and across Boston neighborhoods, 1999-2001. Journal of Urban Health 83, 1063-1084. google scholar
8. Devi, G. L., Varma, D., &Kataktalware, M. A., 2016. An Assessment of vulnerability of livestock farming to climate variability. In Climate change challenge (3C) and social-economic-ecological interface-building (pp. 429-437). Cham: Springer. google scholar

9. DHS (Demographic Health Survey), 2006. Measure DHS: model questionnaire with commentary. Basic Documentation, Number 2. google scholar
10. Ebi, K., Kovats, R.S., Menne, B., 2006. An approach for assessing human health vulnerability and public health interventions to adapt to climate change: Environmental Health Perspectives, pp. 1930-1934. google scholar
11. Fussel, H.M., Klein, R.J.T., 2006. Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments: An evolution of conceptual thinking, Climatic Change. google scholar
12. Gerlitz J-Y, Macchi M, Brooks N et al (2016) The Multidimensional Livelihood Vulnerability Index: an instrument to measure livelihood vulnerability to change in the Hindu Kush Himalayas. Clim Dev 5529:1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2016.1145099. google scholar
13. Hahn, M. B., Riederer, A. M., & Foster, S. O., 2009. The livelihood vulnerability index: A pragmatic approach to assessing risks from climate variability and change: A case study in Mozambique, Global Environmental Change, pp. 74-88. google scholar Hoeghguldberg, O., & Bruno, J. F. 2010. The impact of climate change on the world’s marine ecosystems. Science, 328,1523-1528. https:// doi.org/10.1126/science.1189930 google scholar
14. Holt, J.B., 2007. The topography of poverty in the United States: a spatial analysis using county-level data from the Community Health Status Indicators project. google scholar
15. ICIMOD (2011) Framework for Community-Based Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment in Mountain Areas. Kathmandu: ICIMOD. google scholar
16. IPCC, 2001. Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability; Contribution of Working Group II to the Third Assessment Report, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. google scholar
17. IPCC, 2007. Summary for policymakers, Climate change 2007: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and Contribution of Working Group to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (pp. 7-22), Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. google scholar
18. IPCC, 2014. Climate change 2014: Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. google scholar
19. IPCC, 2014. Summary for policymakers in Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Ed.: Field C.B., Barros V.R., Dokken D.J., Mach K.J., Mastrandrea M.D., Bilir T.E., et al., 2014, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1-32. google scholar
20. Kates, R.W., Clark, W.C., Corell, R., Hall, J.M., Jaeger, C.C. & Lowe, google scholar
21. I. , 2001. Environment and development: Sustainability science. Science 292(5517), pp. 641-642. google scholar
22. Kofinas, G. P. & Chapin, F. S., 2009. Sustaining livelihoods and human well-being during social-ecological change. In F. S. Chapin III, G. P. Kofinas, & C. Folke (Eds.), Principles of ecosystem stewardship: Resilience-based natural resource management in a changing world, pp. 55-75, New York: Springer. google scholar
23. Li, Y, Gao, G., and Song, L., 2014. Understanding of disaster risk and the management associated with climate change in IPCC AR5, Advances in Climate Change Research. google scholar
24. Lioubimtseva, E., 2015. A multi-scale assessment of human vulnerability to climate change in the Aral Sea basin. Environmental Earth Sciences, 73, pp. 719-729. google scholar
25. Macchi M, Gurung AM, Hoermann B (2014) Community perceptions and responses to climate variability and change in the Himalayas. Clim Dev. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2014.966046. google scholar
26. Madhuri, M., Tewari, H. R., &Bhowmick, P K., 2014. Livelihood vulnerability index analysis: An approach to study vulnerability in the context of Bihar. Jâmba: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies. https://doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v6i1.127. google scholar
27. O’Brien, K., Tompkins, H., Javed, A., Bhadwal, S., Barg, S., Nygaard, L., Leichenko, R., Kelkar, U., Venema, H., Aandahl, G., and West, google scholar
28. J. , 2004. Mapping vulnerability to multiple stressors: climate change and globalization in India. Global Environmental Change. google scholar
29. Oppenheimer, M., Campos, M., Warren, R., Birkmann, J., Luber, G., O’Neill, B., & Takahashi, K., 2014. Emergent risks and key vulnerabilities. In C. B. Field, V R. Barros, D. J. Dokken, K. J. Mach, M. D. Mastrandrea, T. E. Bilir, and L. L. White (Eds.), Climate Change 2014: Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part A. Global and sectoral aspects contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. google scholar
30. Pandey R, Jha S (2011) Climate vulnerability index: measure of climate change vulnerability to communities: a case of rural Lower Himalaya, India. Mitig Adapt Strat Global Change 17:487-506. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-011-9338-2 google scholar
31. Pandey, R., &Bardsley, D. K., 2015. Social-ecological vulnerability to climate change in the Nepali Himalaya. Applied Geography, 64, 74-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2015.09.008. google scholar
32. Pandey, R., Maithani, N., Aretano, R., Zurlini, G., Archie, K. M., Gupta, A. K., and Pandey, V. P, 2016. Empirical assessment of adaptation to climate change impacts of mountain households: Development and application of an Adaptation Capability Index. Journal of Mountain Science, pp. 1503-1514. google scholar
33. Pandey, R., Jha, SK., Alatalo, JM., Archie, KM., Gupta, AK., 2017. Sustainable livelihood framework-based indicators for assessing climate change vulnerability and adaptation for Himalayan communities, Ecological Indicators, Elsevier, pp. 338-346. google scholar
34. Panthi J, Aryal S, Dahal P et al (2015) Livelihood vulnerability approach to assessing climate changeimpacts on mixed agro-livestock smallholders around the Gandaki River Basin in Nepal. Reg EnvironChange 16:1121-1132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-015-0833-y. google scholar
35. Patz, J.A., Campbell-Lendrum, D., Holloway, T., and Foley, J.A., 2005. Impact of regional climate change on human health, Nature 438, pp. 310-317. google scholar
36. Polsky, C., Neff, R., and Yarnal, B., 2007. Building comparable global change vulnerability assessments: the vulnerability scoping diagram, Global Environmental Change, pp. 472-485. google scholar
37. Sam, A. S., Kumar, R., Kachele, H., & Müller, K., 2017. Vulnerabilities to flood hazards among rural households in India. Natural Hazards, 88, 1133-1153. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-2911-6. google scholar
38. Shukla, R., Sachdeva, K., & Joshi, P. K. (2018). Demystifying vulnerability assessment of agriculture communities in the Himalayas: a systematic review. Natural Hazards, 91(1), 409-429. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-3120-z. google scholar
39. Sullivan, C., Fediw, T. S., and Meigh, J.R., 2002. Derivation and testing of the water poverty index phase 1, Final Report. Department for International Development, UK, 2002. google scholar
40. Sullivan, C., 2002. Calculating a water poverty index. World Development, pp. 1195-1210. google scholar
41. Sullivan, C., 2006. Global change impacts: assessing human vulnerability at the subnational scale. In: Presented at the International River Symposium, Brisbane. google scholar
42. Tiwari PC, Joshi B (2012) Natural and socio-economic factors affecting food security in the Himalayas.Food Secur 4:195-207. https://doi. org/10.1007/s12571-012-0178-z google scholar
43. Thornton, P.K., Jones, P., Notenbaert, A., P.G., Owiyo, T., Kruska, R.L., Herrero, M., Kristjanson, Bekele, N., and Omolo, A., 2006. Mapping climate vulnerability and poverty in Africa, Report to the Department of International Development. google scholar
44. UNDP, 2007. Human development reports. http://hdr.undp.org/en/. google scholar
45. UNDP, 2014. Sustaining human progress: Reducing vulnerabilities and building resilience (Human Development Report 2014), New York: United Nations Development Program. google scholar
46. UNEP, 2004. Poverty-biodiversity mapping applications. In: Presented at IUCN World Conservation Congress, Bangkok, Thailand, 17-25 November 2004. google scholar
47. United Nations General Assembly, 1997. S/19-2. Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21. 19th Special Session, 23-27 June, New York. google scholar
48. Vincent, K., 2004. Creating an index of social vulnerability to climate change for Africa. Working Paper 56, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia. google scholar
49. Vignieri, S. 2015. How to adapt to climate change. Science, 349(6248), 599-600. doi:10.1126/science.349.6248.599-f. google scholar
50. Vincent, K., 2007. Uncertainty in adaptive capacity and the importance of scale. Global Environmental Change, 12-24. google scholar
51. WHO, 2017. Immunization Coverage Cluster Survey—Reference Manual. WHO Document Production Services, Geneva, Switzerland. google scholar
52. WHO/Roll Back Malaria, 2003. Economic impact of malaria: household survey. Williamsburg Emergency Management, 2004. Household natural hazards preparedness questionnaire. Peninsula Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee, Williamsburg, VA. google scholar
53. World Bank, 1997. Survey of living conditions: Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Household Questionnaire, December 1997-March 1998. google scholar
54. World Food Programme, 2007. Vulnerability analysis and mapping (VAM). http:// www.wfp.org/operations/vam/. google scholar
55. Zhang C., Huang D., Liu C., & Liu, Q., 2014. IPCC AR5updated understanding of climate change impacts on humanwell-beings. Advances in Climate Change Research, 10,246-250. https://doi. org/10.3969/j.issn.1673-1719.2014.04.003 google scholar
56. Zhang, Q., Zhao, X., & Tang, H. (2019). Vulnerability of communities to climate change: application of the livelihood vulnerability index to an environmentally sensitive region of China. Climate and Development, 11 (6), 525-542. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.20 18.1442808 google scholar