An evaluation of the status of natural resources and production practices to assess the vulnerability of Ungra Village to climate change
Student name: Ms Tashina Esteves
Guide: Dr Smriti Das
Year of completion: 2011
Host Organisation: Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Prof N H Ravindranath
Abstract: Changing climate is a compelling reality and communities in certain agro climatic regions, like the
semi-arid regions of India are particularly vulnerable, due to heavy dependence on climate sensitive
sectors like agriculture, fisheries, forestry and other natural resources dependent livelihood sources.
Under such circumstances, the status of natural resources in a region, determine the adaptive
capacity and resilience to environmental changes brought about by climate change. Thus, it is the
need of the hour to promote natural resource conservation and sustainable production practices in
rural areas, to help them cope with and adapt to the changes to come.
This study has used the index approach to determine the vulnerability of a rural community to
climate change, based on the status, availability and access to natural resources and also the
agricultural production practices, over a decade.
The study was carried out in Ungra village of Karnataka, which is a semi-arid zone. The findings
show that over exploitation of resources and non-sustainable production practices increase the
vulnerability of a community, further stressing the need for conservation and sustainability.
Key words: Natural Resources, Vulnerability, Climate Change, Agriculture, Sustainability
