Mapping of Climate-Induced Vulnerability of Tribal Livestock Rearers of Mountain Agro-Ecosystem of Himachal

Mountain agro-ecosystem including livestock rearing is experiencing undesirable consequences of the changing climate. Tribal in particular and farming community in general, depend on livestock for their livelihoods in Himachal. Therefor a study was formulated to assess the climate-induced vulnerability at the household level among the tribal livestock rearers of Himachal Pradesh. An exclusively Vulnerability to Climate Change Index of tribal livestock rearers was by using principal component analysis. The vulnerability index of tribal livestock rearers was ranged between-0.718 to 1.364 in the study area. It was also observed that 39.38 percent of respondents were highly vulnerable to climate change. The respondents from Sirmaur district (−0.279±0.026) were found to be highly vulnerable than respondents of Una district (0.569±0.032). There was also found significant difference (p<0.00) between adaptive capacity, exposure, sensitivity and vulnerability of both the districts. Milk production and milk sale were the major determinants of adaptive capacity of respondents. Variation in rain fall and change in mean temperature were the most important determinants of exposure of respondents towards climate change. Distance to major accessible road and family size were the important determinants of sensitivity of respondents towards climate change. The findings may be helpful while developing the policies for climate preparedness to enhance the resilience capacity of the tribal livestock rearers in mountain agro-ecosystem.