KOHIMA — A new study has reported that 65 districts in the country
are located under the ‘very high drought-hazard’ category (0.68–0.47) across 22
states, including Nagaland.
This finding was presented by the Centre for Study of
Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), and the Indian Institutes of Technology
at Guwahati and Mandi in their recently released report titled ‘District-level
Climate Risk Assessment for India: Mapping Flood and Drought Risks Using the
IPCC Framework.’
The report, containing an in-depth analysis of flood and
drought risks across 698 districts in India, showed some districts of Nagaland
under the ‘very high drought-hazard’ category.
It revealed that the drought hazard index across districts
in India varies from 0.07 to 0.68. Unlike the concentrated flood hazard,
drought is spread out more evenly across districts nationwide.
Sixty-five districts under the very high drought-hazard
category (0.68–0.47) are located in 22 states—with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Assam, Kerala,
Nagaland, and Chhattisgarh hosting more than one such district.
“We observed a dearth of national-level drought hazard
mapping. Hence, we compared our results with data from publications such as
Chuphal et al. (2024). They found a similar spread in the distribution of the
frequency of severe and exceptional droughts that had occurred in India from
1901 to 2021,” it added.
The drought risk index for districts including Mon,
Longleng, Tuensang, Zunheboto, and Mokokchung showed “high” (0.519-0.647). The
‘medium’ category districts are Wokha, Kohima, Phek, and Kiphire, while Peren
and Dimapur are in the ‘low’ category.
The Drought Risk Assessment indicated the variation in
drought risk across districts of India. On a comparative scale, 91 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, it stated.
The study also showed that 51 districts fall in the ‘very
high’ flood risk category, and another 118 districts fall in 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.
