10th Class Social Studies New Book - Climate Change in India

Impact of change on India: Though a rise of 2 o Cin average temperature may appear to be small, it would result in a rise of one meter in sea levels by early next century. This would affect large portions of our coastal areas and millions of people would have to be shifted. They would lose their livelihood.

Nearly 200 squatter families living in Nonadanga in east Kolkata for the past few years are in the process of being evicted by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Many of the families came to Kolkata in search of work, after the Aila super‐cyclone ravaged Sundarbans in 2009.

On March 30, the slum was bulldozed amid heavy police presence and some hutments were set on fire. The recurrent thunderstorms over the past few days has meant sleepless and soiled nights for nearly 700 people who have been rendered homeless. They work as house helps, rickshaw pullers and construction labourers.

Imagine how one would cope with a situation, if millions of people were affected? Where would you find land for resettlement? What jobs would they do? The other effect would be on rainfall. This is likely to be more erratic and lead to greater imbalances: some places are likely to receive excess rainfall whereas others would get less than normal.

Hence droughts and floods are expected to increase. This would greatly affect the
agriculture pattern and people’s livelihood. The faster melting of Himalayan glaciers would disturb the livelihood of fresh water fisher folk as their natural habitat of fish is affected. Similarly freak weather conditions that you read about are likely to increase. Climate change is something that happens at a global level. Therefore, it
affects all of us.

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