Climate vulnerability assessment in semi-arid and arid region of Rajasthan, India: An enquiry into the disadvantaged districts

This paper assesses the district level climate vulnerability in the state of Rajasthan using large-scale data on climate and socio-economic variables. More than thirty indicators segregated into four components of exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity and crop production loss were combined to develop a composite index of vulnerability and homogenous districts were clustered into three categories, viz. low, medium and high. Wide inter-district variations were observed across the calculated indices. The result reveals that highest production losses occurred in Ganganagar district followed by Hanumangarh and Bharatpur. Pali was least exposed to the climatic variability, whereas Bundi had the maximum exposure. Jaisalmer rated the maximum sensitivity level. Further, Pratapgarh followed by Jaisalmer and Banswara had the lowest degree of adaptive capacity. On the whole, districts like Hanumangarh, Jaisalmer, Ganganagar, Bundi, Bharatpur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chittorgarh, Alwar, Baran and Pratapgarh exhibit high level of vulnerability to climatic change. While on the other spectrum Sirohi district was least vulnerable due to lower exposure, sensitivity, crop production loss and high adaptive capacity. The analysis, suggests the need for prioritizing vulnerable areas to arrest regional imbalances by encouraging need/location based interventions for moderating the degree of vulnerability, whilst making agro-ecosystem in Rajasthan resilient to climatic aberrations.