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Bihar’s high vulnerability to Climate change and lack of Climate Policy is a threat forever, suggests study

For the State to be prosperous, Bihar has it all: a determined and hard-working youth force, a mesh of rivers, fertile Gangetic plains to sustain agriculture, political stability, financial grants, benefit of population etc.

Yet it remains to be one of the downtrodden states in India: burgeoning migrant crisis, rising unemployment, malnutrition and associated diseases, yearly floods etc. pressurizes the state to give up each time it tries to rise up from its ashes.

As yet another blow to the state, various recent studies have highlighted the vulnerability of Bihar when it comes to Climate change and Global warming.

A study in 2020 expects an increase of 0.3-0.5º C between 2021 and 2055 in Bihar. This will likely increase the surface temperatures although different years may see fluctuations.

This will shatter state’s wheat production, which is already seeing altered cropping patterns, increased rainfall and at times, even long dry spells.

And since Bihar’s economy is largely agrarian, this could lead to destabilization of its population.

A recent study in 2021 has been undertaken by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi and IIT Guwahati in collaboration with the IISC, Bengaluru.

This study places Bihar on the top of Vulnerability along with other states like Jharkhand and Assam constituting over 60% districts in the category of high vulnerability.

To fight this scenario, the study recommends prioritization of adaptation measures in all such states but that stands critical to Bihar’s recent abandonment of draft climate action plan submitted by the Department of International Development (DFID), UK.

In addition to this, the NSSO report 2018-2019 corelated the impacts of climate change with farmers’ incomes in Bihar and the state’s eternal persistent poverty.

Low yields have also been noted in both the previous kharif (alone dipped 19%) and rabi seasons.

Bihar floods: a sure killer every time

Bihar constitutes a staggering 16.5% of India’s flood-affected area and at least 22.1% of India’s flood affected population with its own 73% geographical area under flood-threats.

Its boon of natural rivers has repeatedly cost its lives. North Bihar has five major flood-causing rivers during monsoon originating in Nepal – Mahananda River, Koshi River, Bagmati River, Burhi Gandak River and Gandak while south Bihar falls prey to Son, Punpun and Phalgu rivers.

In order to protect Koshi river, known as the Sorrow of Bihar as well as its embankments each year, the dam’s gates are opened causing the floods.

It is ironic to note that although India has built over 3000 km of embankments alone in Bihar in last few decades but the flooding capacity has also increased by 2.5 times during the same time time.

Deforestation in the catchment area of rivers in North Bihar along with changes and interruptions in the dynamic equilibrium of the naturally-meandering river have led to increased silt content of the river flowing down, especially at Farakka barrage.

While floods are a common visitor each time in Northern Bihar, these areas have also seen greatest dip in groundwater levels: it was reported to be between 60 ft and 250 ft, while it used to be between 40 ft and 200 ft earlier.

One can imagine what a little flavor of Climate change can do to this scenario. Bihar already falls in seismic Zone V while its 27 out of 38 districts are under the influence of high-speed winds of 47 m/s density.

Climate change is making these Natural events more frequent and extreme in the state.

What causes Bihar to be exposed to such Climate Vulnerabilities?

According to the IIT study mentioned above, reasons surpass the ecological, social and economic spheres.  

Inaccessible forest areas for the rural population, low productivity of food systems, the prevalence of rainfed agriculture, lack of crop insurance, extreme sensitivity of the health sector (disease prevalence) is problematic especially when the population has a low adaptive capacity.

The study recognizes socio-economic factors too like a high proportion of Below the Poverty Line (BPL) population, high numbers of marginal and small landholdings, women’s dwindling participation in the workforce, lack of implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as the other drivers of vulnerability.

Sustainability: an existential crisis and a privilege in Bihar

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar launched the Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali campaign in 2019 at the cost of Rs.24,524 crores (Rs. 245.24 billion) to limit the impacts of climate change, promote ecological balance, and promote water conservation in the state.

But the bureaucratic implementation of this program has not been satisfactory. Floods have become a business and the new normal.

Public is forgetful and barely has any memory of its own. Every year the region will be ravaged by floods and the government will compensate. What else?

IIT study illustrates: “Bihar does not need to do something extraordinary to make their state resilient to climate change. If the state government is basically talking about reducing poverty, enhancing the sources of livelihood, better health facilities, strengthening institutions – all these are going to make its state climate resilient”.

Bihar basically needs to mainstream the adaptation strategies within the development”.

“One of the factors of vulnerability continues to be the lack of alternative sources of livelihood. A large chunk of people in Bihar are dependent on climate-sensitive livelihood, for example, agriculture, fisheries, livestock, etc. then, of course, larger section of people are vulnerable to climate change.”

“Thus, the state needs to also focus on non-farming sectors, by doing so you build a climate-resilient community. Districts in Bihar are vulnerable to socio-economic, biophysical and institutional factors that are drivers of vulnerability for climate change.”

Following Covid, Bihar still awaits its new action plan to fight Climate change: “We will soon have an action plan. Climate crisis is one of the top priorities of the state government.”

All it needs to do now is to engage Experts and utilize efficiently its Intellectual minds spread across the entire Indian continent(known for Bureaucracy), ready to work for upliftment of their state.

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