Environment, Climate change and Disaster management in Bihar
- Abstract:
- In the last few decades, Bihar has witnessed immense population growth, accompanied with double-digit economic growth, necessitating the increased extraction of the natural resources.
- Forestry and logging contributed to nearly 1.2 percent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in Bihar, growing at a rate of 6.9 percent per annum during 2015-16 to 2019-20.
- Overall, the state received an annual rainfall of 1094.4 mms in 2019-20. About 88.5 percent of this rainfall was largely due to the south-west monsoons.
- Bihar’s first state bird festival, “Kalrav”, was held from 15th to 17th January 2021 at Nagi and Nakti bird shelters in Jamui with a view to revive the culture of bird conservation.
- In the wake of the Covid- 19 pandemic, the Department of Disaster Management took various kinds of welfare measures to help the poor and migrants. Despite the pandemic, the Department of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, achieved planting 3.90 crore plants as part of the plantation drive with help from various Government Organizations, JEEViKA Didis, Department of Rural Development through MGNREGA, army and para-military forces.
- To combat air pollution, a “State Fuel Policy on use of pet coke and furnace/fuel oil” was launched in June 2020.
- The State Government is striving to achieve the global goals of 2030 by focusing on streamlining the linkages between economy. environment. and human development.
- Introduction:
- The transformational vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations for 2030 entails achieving economic prosperity by promoting inclusive and sustained growth along with environmental sustainability.
- The natural environment provides the resources to produce goods and services thereby supporting socio-economic activity besides regulating the climate and protecting the ecosystems.
- Considering the large-scale health crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent socio-economic challenges all over the world, a renewed focus is needed both at the national and sub-national levels, towards reconciling economic growth with social development and ecological integrity to achieve the vision of the Global Goals.
- In states such as Bihar, the last few decades have witnessed immense population growth accompanied with double-digit economic growth necessitating the increased extraction of the natural resources. Bihar faces unprecedented strain on natural resources due to population growth, high population density, large number of poor, changing economic structure, and the creation of new infrastructure to meet the growing needs of industrialization and urbanization.
- For instance, Bihar’s Gross State Domestic Product grew at a rate of growth of 10.5 percent, compared to the country’s average of 4.2 percent in 2019-20.
- The state’s population density is high at 1106 persons per sq.km with a decadal population of growth rate of 25.1 percent.
- Further, more than three-fourth of the population are fending for their livelihoods from agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, and tourism sectors, thereby having consequence for environmental health and the functioning of ecosystems.
- The State Government is continuing its efforts to achieve the global goals of 2030 by focusing on streamlining the linkages between the economy, environment, and human development. The Department of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change of the State Government shares the national vision of conservation and sustainable management of the forest, environmental resources, and biodiversity.
- Climate Change:
- Bihar is in the eastern region of the country, bounded by the Himalayan foothills, the Indo-Gangetic Plains, the Vindhyan Plateau and the small Gondwana Basin, extending for 483 kms from east to west and 345 kms from north to south.
- The state is spread across 93.60 lakh hectares of geographical area, constituting about 2.9 percent of country’s geographical area of the country.
- Bihar, as a land-locked state, its neighbouring states are West Bengal in the east, Uttar Pradesh in the west, Jharkhand in the south, while sharing its border with Nepal in the north. The main river Ganga flows from west to east, dividing the state into the northern and southern part.
- The state has three distinct agro-climatic zones —
- North-west, consisting of 13 districts receiving an annual rainfall of 1040-1450 mms, whose soil is sandy loam,
- North-East, covering about 8 districts with an annual rainfall ranging between 1200-1700 mms, consisting of loam or clay loam, and
- South East and West Zone, which has 17 districts filled with soil of sandy loam, loam, clay or clay loam and receiving an annual rainfall of 990-1240 mms.
- The state lies between 24° 20′ N to 27° 31′ N latitude and 83° 19′ E to 88° 17′ E longitude and is situated at 52.7 metres above the sea level, making it experience three distinct seasons such as winter, summer, and rainy.
- The annual average temperature ranges between 8°C in cold winter months during December-February and 38°C hot summer months during April-June.
- The highest rainfall is received in the north-east zone, with its annual rainfall averaging around 1450 mms.
- Given the wide variety of fertile alluvial soil and substantial water resources, there is a lot of scope for development of agricultural and allied sector in Bihar.
- Rainfall:
- One of the direct significant impacts of global warming is revealed through the changing rainfall patterns and other forms of precipitation.
- Bihar is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change as reflected in its high susceptibility to climate-related disasters such as flood, drought, earthquakes, and high-speed wind/cyclone.
- As a result of climate changes, it is increasingly getting difficult to predict rainfall or weather patterns which are impacting the agricultural cycle and crop productivity.
- Further, uncertainty in rainfall affects the flow in the rivers, affecting inland fisheries and the livelihood of the fishing population.
- Annual rainfall has witnessed considerable variations across time and space:
- Across time:
- Overall, the state received an annual rainfall of 1094.4 mms in 2019-20. About 88.5 percent of this rainfall was largely due to the south-west monsoons, occurring during the months of June-September, while the winter rain, hot-weather rain and north-west monsoon accounted for the remaining 11.5 percent in 2019-20.
- Also, the annual rainfall received in Bihar varied between 677.9 mms (2010), 796 mms (2015) and 1506.1 mms (2007) during the last decade.
- As of September 2020-21, Bihar has received about 1161.2 mms of rainfall during June-September due to the south-west monsoons, which is 37.3 percent higher than the long run average of 846.2 mms.
- Thus, the trends in the distribution of annual rainfall across the years show considerable variations.
- Besides variations across time, the rainfall patterns are also varied across the different agro-climatic zones in the state.
- While the agro-climatic zones of North-West and North-East are inclined towards heavy rainfall, the Southern part receives mostly dry spells in nature.
- Out of the 38 districts, 17 districts received rainfall higher than the state’s average of 1094.4 mms in 2019-20. Among the districts, Kishanganj received the highest rainfall of 1981.8 mms in 2019-20 while the lowest rainfall of 615 mms was recorded in Arwal.
- In case of the south-west monsoons, the highest rainfall was observed in Kishanganj (2318.1), followed by the districts of Supaul (1725.3 mms), E. Champaran (1653.5 mms), and W. Champaran (1641.2 mms) in 2020-21.
- The district-wise trends in distribution of rainfall in Bihar reveal that the northern districts are likely to receive higher rain spells than the southern districts from the south-west monsoons.
- As a result, the southern plains experience more drought-prone tendencies and lower levels of groundwater which affect the availability of water for agricultural purposes.
- On the other hand, the northern parts are largely prone to floods and waterlogging, which affect the crop yields, particularly of paddy crop.
- Across time:
- The fluctuating rainfall patterns over time and regions clearly impact agricultural production, livelihood of the people, the water table levels, and survival of biodiversity.
- Also, as an agrarian economy, variations in rainfall leading to drought or flood-like situations has implications for agricultural production. The Agriculture Roadmap-III (2017-22) emphasises the presence of climatic irregularities in Bihar which has necessitated a higher level of intervention by the State Government to help farmers for better management of risk arising due to spatial and temporal variations in rainfall.
- For this purpose, various projects such as watershed management and construction of reservoirs have been taken up.
- Temperature:
- Globally, rapid changes in earth’s surface temperature are affecting the weather and climatic patterns and Bihar is no exception to this scenario. In the recent years, the summer months of March-June are witnessing increased occurrence of heat waves while the months of December-February are facing warming, causing disturbances in crop production.
- Given that Bihar has rich aquatic ecosystems and migratory birds, changes in temperature regimes can affect their habitat and survival. There is a strong correlation between the rising mean temperature and the extent of forest fires impacting the carbon cycles.
- The trends in annual average, minimum, and maximum temperature for Bihar between 2001-02 to 2019-20:
- The lowest minimum temperature was recorded in 2010-11 at 0.5° Celsius. The maximum temperature varied between 43.7° Celsius in 2008-09 and 46.7 in 2005-06.
- A cursory look at the average temperature reveals that it stood at 24° Celsius during the last 19 years. Also, the state faces extreme differences in temperature during the summer and winter months. The rising mean temperature over a long period of time is likely to alter the atmospheric moisture which would impact the yield rates.
