The report titled ‘District-level Climate Risk Assessment for India: Mapping Flood and Drought Risks Using the IPCC Framework’ containing an in-depth analysis of flood and drought risks across 698 districts in India, was released on 13 December 2024 at IIT Delhi.

This report, developed by the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, and CSTEP Bengaluru, and supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), offers district-level flood and drought hazard, exposure, and vulnerability maps, leading to the generation of comprehensive flood and drought risk maps for India. A detailed User Manual is also released along with the report.

It also contains district-level flood and drought hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and risk maps for each Indian state and UTs, which can help build the capacity of State Climate Change Cells and allied departments in climate change in risk assessment for adaptation planning.

Dr. Anita Gupta, Head of the CEST Division at the Department of Science and Technology (DST), spearheaded DST's initiative to address climate change. While releasing the report in New Delhi, she highlighted that DST, which drives two major national missions-- National Mission on Sustainable Himalayan Ecosystems (NMSHE) and National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (NMSKCC), is keen to identify states with high-risk profiles and work closely with them to prepare adaptation strategies. It involves translating risk assessments into actionable pathways, build sustainable frameworks and sensitizing local communities who are most vulnerable to climate change impacts. She added that a series of awareness campaigns is planned to empower these communities and ensure they are equipped to face potential challenges.

Highlighting the importance of climate-resilient development, Mr. Pierre-Yves Pitteloud, Senior Regional Advisor on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) & Rapid Response (RR) in South Asia, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Embassy of Switzerland, said that India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and is developing infrastructure to improve the lives of people. He added that the report had undertaken risk mapping at the district level to generate dialogue between policymakers, people, and local bodies like municipalities to identify the vulnerability and exposure along with the hazard.     

The report's Flood Risk Assessment, based on the integrated data on flood hazards, exposure, and vulnerability, highlighted that, on a comparative scale, fifty-one districts fall into the ‘Very High’ flood risk category, and another 118 districts fall into the ‘High’ flood risk category. About 85% of districts in the ‘Very High’ or ‘High’ flood risk category are in Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Odisha, and Jammu and Kashmir.

The Drought Risk Assessment indicates the variation in drought risk across districts of India. On a comparative scale, ninety-one districts fall in the ‘Very High’ drought risk category and another 188 districts in the ‘High’ drought risk category. More than 85% of districts in the ‘Very High’ or ‘High’ drought risk category are located in Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, and Haryana.

Dual Risk of Flood and Drought shows that among the top 50 districts with the highest flood risk and the top 50 districts with the highest drought risk, 11 districts are at a ‘Very High’ risk of both flood and drought. Districts facing this dual risk include Patna in Bihar; Alappuzha in Kerala; Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, South SalmaraMankachar, and Golaghat in Assam; Kendrapara in Odisha, and Murshidabad, Nadia, and Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal.

Prof. Laxmidhar Behera, Director IIT Mandi; Prof. Devendra Jalihal, Director IIT Guwahati; Professor N H Ravindranath, IISc, Bengaluru; Dr. Kalachand Sain, Former Director Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology; Prof. Anamika Barua, IIT Guwahati; Dr. Shyamasree Dasgupta, IIT Mandi; Dr. Indu K Murthy, CSTEP, Bangaluru; Dr. Susheela Negi, DST along with officials from DST, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, state climate cell and other stakeholders were present at the event.

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NKR/KS

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