While India stakes its claim to rich flora & fauna and huge biodiversity, the disconcerting fact that emerges is some of this nature’s bounty stares at extinction and many other vulnerable and endangered. Suman Singh debates on this impact of climate change on forests and natural vegetation to elaborate how rapid urbanisation is a causative factor in damaging the ecosystem.
India happens to have some of the most diverse species of plants and trees in the world. With climatic conditions as diverse and varying from hot to cold weather, the zone is rich in vegetation of all kinds.
The rich flora makes India the tenth highest in the world and fourth highest in Asia in terms of plant diversity. There are more than 46,000 species of plants in the 70 per cent of geographical area surveyed so far.
Owing to several factors including climate change, several species of Indian plants are facing extinction. About 1,336 plant species are considered vulnerable and endangered and 20 of higher plants are listed as possibly extinct. The latter means that these species have not been seen in the last few decades.
There are eight floristic regions in India, each with a set of unique characteristics. These are as follows – Western Himalayas, Eastern Himalayas, Assam, Indus Plain, Ganga Plain, Deccan, Malabar and the Andamans. Each of these regions has a distinct set of flora with a unique character.
The Himalayan region (Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya and Nagaland) and the Deccan region are rich in endemic flora i.e., many plants here are not found anywhere else in the world.
The diverse flora
To begin with, there is the Western Himalayan region – a temperate zone – that starts from Kashmir and goes on till Kumaon. The zone is home to the native pines, chir and other temperate trees like the conifers. At higher elevations, the vegetation includes trees like silver fir, deodar, spruce, etc., the alpine zone is home to beautiful junipers, silver birch, etc.
Eastern Himalayas start from Sikkim and go eastwards. Also, a characteristic temperate zone, the forests here are home to maples, oaks, birch, alder, rhododendrons, junipers, conifers, etc.
On the other hand, the Assam region is rich in evergreen forests with pockets of bamboo and tall grasses. Assam’s tryst with bamboo is well known – more than 50 species of bamboo grow in Assam and are used for diverse purposes.
Ganga plain is rich in alluvial soil, has small forest pockets and is mainly cultivated for sugarcane, rice and wheat. Indus plain in the north is arid and hot. Deccan in central India, the peninsular tableland has mixed deciduous forests.
The Malabar region is biodiverse and owing to excessive humidity has forest vegetation and a range of other crops with high commercial value such as cashew, coconut, etc. Andaman region is home to mangrove, evergreen forests, etc.
Global warming and flora
The impact of climate change on forests and natural vegetation is damaging the ecosystem. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) conducted a long-term study that started in 1982 and concluded in 2018. The study focussed on five major coral reef regions of India – Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep Islands.
The study revealed that the coral reef regions in India have different regional, thermal and bleaching thresholds corresponding to their individual warmest months and quarters. Another set of data showed that there was a significant change in the sea surface temperatures since 2014 – where it was above the long-term mean.
The time periods when the sea surface temperatures in the region were the highest, in 2015 and 2016, the production of green microscopic plants decreased and was the lowest in these two periods. Interestingly, in the same time period, the zone also experienced the strongest El-Nino of the decade.
India’s average temperature has already increased by 0.7 degree Celsius approximately in the time period between 1901 and 2018. The main cause is the greenhouse gas emissions. Estimates reveal that by the end of 2100, the average temperature will rise by approximately 4.4 degree Celsius.
Climate change and food security
Climate change induced by global warming is not only endangering the plant species but also affecting the country’s food security. Due to rising temperatures, extreme weather events, floods and droughts, the crop yield has been disrupted and agricultural processes that are primarily rain-dependent in India are impacted adversely.
In the Himalayan region, owing to climate change, there has been an increase in the extinction rate of floral and faunal species. Climate change induced changing weather patterns such as change in rainfall intensity and pattern is affecting agricultural crops as well which are seeing changes in the maturity period of the crop plants and the overall growth, again affecting the food security.
Additionally, climate change is increasing the intensity of several environmental phenomena such as wildfires that reduces the vegetative cover on land. As a result, humans dependent on this vegetation increases their dependency on alternate sources of food. When these people start depending on forests, there is an increase in conflict between humans and wildlife over resources available and habitat.
Other environmental changes such as increasing temperatures, excessive heat or heat waves, water shortage, etc. directly impact food security. These changes affect soil quality and irrigation and lead to reduction in crop yield.
Climate change also puts a lot of pressures on water resources such as groundwater, rivers, etc. India is still an agricultural economy and the agriculture is monsoon dependent. This makes the sector extremely fragile and prone to the effects of climate change such as water shortage.
Groundwater levels are already depleting owing to excessive human intervention, activity and use. Rains are increasingly becoming uncertain and floods and droughts are commonplace. This puts a lot of pressure on agriculture. Natural disasters which are also increasing because of climate change directly affect agriculture and the food production and supply chain. It’s important to safeguard agriculture against these uncertainties and make communities climate resilient for food security.
Urbanisation and its effects
By the year 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in cities, as opposed to the nearly half of the population that is in cities now. To make space for more people, often trees are cut, and houses and residential complexes are built.
The importance of trees in maintaining the ecological balance is well known. In cities, there’s always a tussle between the developers who want to cut trees for construction and the environmentalists who want to protect them.
More than 80 per cent of the Earth’s live carbon is in trees and the soil that holds them. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air, keep the soil together and prevent erosion of soil. Trees and gardens are the lungs of populated and polluted cities.
Most cities in India ensure trees are planted adequately and protected. Mumbai, for example, India’s commercial capital, has been included in the World Tree City 2022 list, for the second consecutive year. In 2021, Mumbai shared the honour with Hyderabad as the city, among others worldwide, promoting best practices in urban forestry.
The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) carry out this list. Mumbai fulfilled the five ADF criteria – determining responsibilities for tree care, setting rules to govern urban forests and tree management, maintaining an up-to-date inventory or assessment of local tree assets, allocating resources for a tree management plan and organising an annual tree festival to educate citizens.
Suman Singh is a researcher with DraftCraft International’s The Climate Change Project that documents and analyses climate crisis and action Across India and Beyond Borders.