Does climate change leads to severe household-level vulnerability? Evidence from the Western Ghats of Kerala, India

Abstract

Due to climate change, erratic and extreme rainfall events are rising in Kerala, India. This, in turn, is triggering landslides and floods in the Western Ghats of Kerala. Accordingly, this study analyzes the assessment and distribution of household level vulnerability toward climate change among the occupational categories in the Western Ghats of Kerala. Based on landslide data of Kerala for the years 2018 and 2019, five villages from the Idukki district of Kerala that accounts for the highest number of landslides are selected as the study region. The landslides and floods have either entirely or partially destroyed 3367 households in the study region during 2018 and 2019. Among these, 348 families are chosen for the study. We have adopted a stratified random sampling technique. The households belonging to all occupational categories are included in the sample. To facilitate the analysis, we have developed the concept of adaptive capacity entitlement to analyze the household-level vulnerability differences among occupational categories. Accordingly, data is elicited using an interview schedule and analyzed using robust logistic regression models. The results show that agrarian households are significantly vulnerable to landslides and floods. Among agrarian households, agricultural laborers tend to be the most vulnerable. A substantial number of agricultural laborer households live in hazard-prone regions, resulting in unequally distributed exposure to climatic hazards. The study reveals that the family's historic wealth (landholding) plays a significant role in households' capacity to attain entitlement. Besides, the entitlement enables the household to migrate to safer locations. The study highlights the need to frame a holistic climate adaptation policy for the region. For this reason, a sustainable land use policy has to be developed. Consequently, we recommend further studies to analyze the prospects and challenges of rehabilitation as well as land use regulation policies.