Awareness and Risk Perception to Climate Variability among Baiga and Gond Tribes in Chhattisgarh State of India

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1 Page49 Awareness and Risk Perception to Climate Variability among Baiga and Gond Tribes in Chhattisgarh State of India Nema, J. 1* and Tripathi, H. 2 Division of Extension Education, Indian Veterinary Research Institute Izatnagar, Bareilly (India) 1 M.V.Sc. student, Division of Veterinary Extension, IVRI, Izatnagar, India 2 Principal Scientist and Programme Coordinator, KVK, IVRI, Izatnagar, India *Corresponding Author: jayshrinema@gmail.com Rec. Date: Jul 24, :15, Accepted Date: Sep 09, :50 Abstract This study has attempted to find out the level of ness among tribal respondents of Chhattisgarh with respect to climate variability and perceived risks due to changes in climate attributes. The study was carried out in kabirdham district of Chhattisgarh state. Data were collected from 120 tribal respondents from 6 village of kabirdham district. The study revealed that majority of female and male farmers hailing from tribal areas were not about concepts of climate change and global warming. Eleven per cent female and per cent male respondents were about the causes of changes in climate. Female and male respondents did not differ significantly in their perception on changes in climate attributes due to change in precipitation, length of summer days and winter days, water level, heat waves and moisture level. However perceptions differed significantly between female and male respondents with respect to changes in temperature, monsoon and number of rainy days at 5 per cent level of significance. Keywords: Awareness, Climate variability, Risk perception, Climate attributes Introduction Climate change has emerged as one of the most devastating environmental threat globally. It is a multi-faceted challenge for today s societies through its impact on human, agriculture, livestock and the natural environment. Developing countries are more vulnerable to climate change than developed countries because of the predominance of agriculture in their economies and scarcity of capital for adaptation measures (Fischer et. al., 2005). India s economy and a majority of its population are highly dependent on climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries etc. In India, significant negative impacts have been implied with mediumterm climate change, predicted to reduce yields by 4.5 to 9 percent, depending on the magnitude and distribution of warming. Since agriculture makes up roughly 16 percent of India s GDP, a 4.5 to 9% negative impact on production implies a cost of climate change to be roughly up to 1.5 percent of GDP per year (Venkateswarlu et al., 2012). Regular drought or other changes in state of Chhattisgarh not only caused the agricultural losses of the poor

2 Page50 farmers but also reduced their income. Gender is also an important ingredient in building climate resilience. Awareness and perception of climate variability may be different between the men and women as they have different needs and face varying impacts of climate change. Gender considerations thus will be part of broadening access to technology to manage climate change. Gender equality issues have raised a step higher also on the international climate change agenda at the recent. The study is unique in a sense that it covered both male and female respondents, may help in preparing a road map for capacity building of people living in the remote tribal areas for effective adaptation and mitigation of adverse effects for sustainable livelihood and development in view of the above, the study has been undertaken to assess the level of ness and perception of tribal respondents with respect to change in climate and its attributes. Materials and Methods The present study has been carried out in state of Chhattisgarh which comprises a total of 27 districts. Out of these, Kabirdham district was selected purposively because the climate in this district varies to a large extent every year as per the available sources and records. Moreover, no study on impact of climate variability specifically on livestock has been carried out in this region. Kabirdham district constitutes 4 blocks namely; Kawardha, Bodla, Sahaspur Lohara and Pandaria. Out of 4, one block namely Bodla was selected purposively. This block constitutes 345 numbers of villages. Out of these, 6 village namely Amanara, Ghongha, Usarwahi, Bokkarkhar, Tenduaadih, Minminiya maidan were selected randomly. This block has more number of Schedule Tribes population (39.62%), mainly Baiga and Gond who were actual respondents of the present study. Baiga tribes were more prominent in study areas than Gond tribes. Fifty eight per cent female and 67 per cent male respondents belonged to Baiga cast whereas 42 per cent female and 33 per cent male respondents belonged to Gond caste. Mean age of marriage in tribes is found to be a little over 15 years. Agriculture, fishing, hunting, extracting forest products, forging metal goods in cottage industries, etc are the prime occupations of tribal respondents in study area. A list of livestock owning tribal farmers was prepared for each village. From each of the 6 selected villages, ten female and an equal number of male respondents were selected randomly, thus from each of the selected village, 20 tribal farmers (10 female + 10 male respondents) were selected. Final data were collected personally from interview schedule from 120 livestock owing tribal families from 6 different villages of

3 Page51 Kabirdham district of Chhattisgarh state. Results and Discussion Table 1 indicates that 25 per cent male respondents from tribal areas had heard the term Climate change and somewhat that climate changing taking place in the couple of years against 17 per cent of the female respondents. Thus majority of the male (75%) and female respondents (83.33%) were not at all about climate change. Similar findings have been documented in West Bengal by Sarkar and Padariya et al. in 2010 who also reported that nearly 38 per cent of the respondents had heard about climate change. Study conducted by Mandleni and Anim (2011) indicated that 57 per cent livestock farmers were more of climate change and the rest 43 per cent were not in South Africa. Finding of study in the Ghana however, unveiled that about 90 per cent respondents thought that climate change is happening while 10.3 per cent saw no change in climate (Acquah 2011). Another study conducted by Singh in 2012 on knowledge and perception of livestock owners on climate change revealed the contrary to it. He revealed that 97.5 per cent farmers of Nainital and Deoria believed that climate change is happening. Present study also indicated that except 85 per cent female and 75 per cent male respondents were found it as an urgent and serious problem. Similarly majority of the female (96.66%) and male (93.33%) farmers were not acquainted with the term of global warming. It was surprising that 93 per cent tribal farmers never came across to this term before. The reason may be because these peoples living away from city and rarely come across to news and the environmental phenomenon. Eleven per cent female and per cent male respondents were somewhat about the causes of changes in climate. Thus majority of the male (83.33%) and female (88.33%) respondents were not at all about climate change, its cause, importance, role of animal in climate change as well as impact of climate variability on livestock. No statistical significant differences were observed between the female and male respondents with respect to their ness for climate change. Table 1: Distribution of respondents according to their ness about climate variability Awareness Female (60) Male (60) Fully Somewhat Not Fully Somewhat Not value

4 Page52 Awareness that climate is changing Awareness of importance of climate change(taking it urgent and serious problem) Awareness for global warming Awareness of cause of climate change - 10 (16.67) - (15.00) - 02 (03.33) - 07 (11.60) Figures in parentheses indicate percentage Perceived causes of climate change 50 (83.33) 51 (85.00) 58 (96.67) 53 (88.33) - 15 (25.00) - 15 (25.00) - 04 (6.67) - 10 (16.67) 45 (75.00) 45 (75.00) 56 (93.33) 50 (83.33) To understand the ness regarding causes of climate change, respondents were asked to express their perceptions that were with the term about causes of climate change. About per cent of the female respondents attributed it to deforestation, per cent to bush burning, equal percentage to emulsion of gas from industries as factors responsible for climate variability. Amongst male respondents, 50 per cent attributed it to deforestation, 10 per cent to bush burning, equal per cent of respondents cited it to emission of gas from industries and 30 per cent to all the mentioned factors. Similar findings have been documented in Sekyednumase district in Ghana wherein about per cent of the farmers attributed it to deforestation, 18.9 per cent to bush burning, 3.3 per cent to increased population and 8.9 per cent to other factors (Fosu-Mensah, et al, 2010). Another study conducted by Acquah in 2011 revealed that about 87.2 per cent respondents were d about causes of climate change while 12.8 per cent were not d. About 92 per cent thought that climate change results from bush burning, 92.4 per cent thought that deforestation causes climate change; 89.7 per cent thought burning of fossil fuels lead to changes in the climatic behavior; 92.3 per cent cited emission of gases from industries as a cause of climate change and 54 respondents representing 69.2 per cent thought uncontrollable use of aerosols causes climate change. Table 2: Distribution of respondents according to cause of climate change perceived by them Perceived causes of climate change Bush burning Female (n=7) Male(n=10) Pooled (N=17) f % f % F %

5 Page53 Deforestation Burning of fossil fuels Emission of gas from industries All of these Risks perceived by respondents with reference to climate attributes Respondents were asked to reveal their perception on attributes of climate change in terms of its increase, decrease, altered and no change. Frequency was calculated on each of this attribute separately for male female tribal respondents as well as for pooled sample. Table 3 indicates that per cent respondents perceived increase in temperature, 10 per cent perceived altered and per cent perceived no change in it. A study conducted on perception of climate change revealed that a significant number of farmers believed that temperature had already increased and precipitation had declined for eleven African countries (Maddison, 2006). A case study of Sekyedumase district in Ghana revealed that 91.1 per cent of farmers perceived a long term change in temperature. Acquah, 2011 also found that 29.1 per cent respondents perceived increase in temperature due to high direct sun intensity. Present study further shows that about per cent respondents perceived decrease in precipitation. No change in precipitation was perceived by 25 per cent of the respondents. About 16 per cent respondents also perceived that time of precipitation have been changed in recent years. With respect to rainfall majority of the tribal respondents (72.50%) perceived it unpredictable change. About 14 per cent respondents perceived late onset of monsoon and rest of the respondents perceived irregular rainfall distribution. According to per cent respondents number of rainy days has been decrease whereas 26 per cent of the respondents perceived no change in it. Majority of female (60%) and male (66.66%) respondents perceived that length of summer days has been increased. Twenty four per cent of the respondents perceived no change in length of winter days whereas most of the respondents perceived that length of winter days has been decreased and about 29 per cent of the respondents yielded no idea about it. Habiba et. al., (2012) reported that long length of summer days as well as short length of winter days were recognized as observed climatic changes in Northwestern Bangladesh. Present study further revealed that equal percentage of female and male respondents (86.67%) perceived decrease

6 Page54 in water level in river and stream. Sixty three per cent respondents perceived increase in heat waves whereas 15 per cent had no idea about it. Decreasing soil moisture perceived by 37 per cent female against 78 per cent male respondents. In pooled sample per cent respondents perceived that soil moisture has been decreased and 25 per cent of respondents yielded no idea about it and the rest per cent of respondents perceived no change in soil moisture. Female and male respondents did not differ significantly in their perception on changes in climate attributes due to change in precipitation, length of summer days and winter days, water level, heat waves and moisture level. However perceptions were significantly observed for the changes in temperature, monsoon and number of rainy days at 5 per cent level of significance between female and male respondents. Table 3: Gender wise distribution of respondents according to their perception with respect to changes in climate attributes

7 Page55 Perception Female (n=60) Male (n-60) Pooled (N=120) F % f % F % 2 Temperature value Increased Decreased Altered temperature * No change Precipitation Increased Decreased Change in time precipitation No change Monsoon pattern Late onset of monsoon Early withdrawal Monsoon Unpredictable rain fall Irregular rain * distribution Number of rainy days Increased Decreased No change * No idea Length of summer days Increased Decreased No change No idea Length of winter days Increased Decreased No change No idea Water level in rivers/streams Increased Decreased No change No idea Heat waves Increased Decreased No change

8 Page56 No idea Soil moisture Increased Decreased No change No idea * Significant at 5 per cent level of significance (P<0.05) Conclusion The study revealed that very few tribal farmers of Chhattisgarh state were somewhat about climate change and most of the them were not at all for climate change. Thus public education programs to create the ness and providing information and knowledge on the causes and prevention of effect of climate variability on the livelihood of the tribes living in the remote areas are essentially required. The study established that tribal farmers were unable to comprehend the concept of long term impacts of climate change and continue to equate climate change with shifts in weather patterns. There is a pressing need to ensure that the concept of climate change and potential impacts are communicated along with aspects of uncertainty in innovative ways to the community to facilitate adaptation actions. References 1. Acquah, G.D.H Public ness and quality of knowledge regarding climate change in Ghana: a logistic regression approach. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, 13 (3): Venkateswarlu B., Maheswari, M., Srinivasa, M., Rao, V.U.M., Srinivasa R., Ramana, D.B.V., Rama Rao C.A., Dixit, S. and Singh A.K National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture, Research highlights. Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture. Hyderabad. 3. Sarkar, S. and Padaria, R. N Farmers ness and risk perception about climate change in coastal ecosystem of West Bengal. Indian Research Journal of Extension Education, 10 (2): Mandleni, B. and Anim, F.D.K Climate change ness and decision on adaptation measures by livestock farmers in South Africa. Journal of Agricultural Science, 3 (3): Singh, S. K Knowledge and perception of livestock owners on climate change. M.V.Sc.Thesis IVRI, Izatnagar. 6. Fosu-Mensah, B.Y., Vlek, P. L. G. and Manschadi, A. M Farmers perception and adaptation to climate change; a case study of Sekyedumase district in Ghana. In proceeding of conference on International research on food security, natural resource

9 Page57 management and rural development held in ETH Zurich, September Maddison, D The perception of an adaptation to climate change in Africa. CEEPA.Discussion Paper No. 10. Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa. Pretoria, South Africa: University of Pretoria. 8. Habiba, U., Shaw, R., and Takeuchi, Y Farmer s perception and adaptation practices to cope with drought: Perspectives from Northwestern Bangladesh. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 1: