Vulnerability to climate change of tribal and non-tribal farm-households: A case of West Tripura district of north-east India

Climate change is intensifying climate extremes, reducing food and water security and hampering attempts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. The study was taken up in West Tripura district of Tripura state of North-East India which is classified as a climate change vulnerable district. Vulnerability to climate change differs across communities due to higher reliance and connection with natural resources. Keeping the aforementioned facts in view the following study was conducted to assess the vulnerability to climate change of tribal and non-tribal farm-households in two blocks of West Tripura district using the LVI-IPCC (Livelihood Vulnerability Index) approach. It was observed that the LVI score of both tribal and non-tribal households fall under vulnerable category. However, tribal farm-households have a higher LVI than non-tribal farm-households (0.456 versus 0.327), indicating greater vulnerability of tribal farm-households to climate change mostly due to the differences in the major components of LVI like health, food and water. One of the factors contributing to vulnerability of tribal households was unavailability of irrigation water during dry season. Based on the findings, the study suggests special attention for awareness on appropriate irrigation and water harvesting schemes and implementation of social assistance programme for reducing the vulnerability of concerned.