Ranchi, Sep 9 (PTI) Fourteen Jharkhand districts are critically vulnerable to climate change, a forest official said at a workshop here on Friday.

Garhwa, Palamu, Chatra, Hazaribagh, Giridih, Bokaro, Godda, Sahebganj, Pakur, and Khunti are among the affected districts.

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Additional principal chief conservator of forest (CAMPA) Sanjiv Kumar said that the impact of climate change is visible in Jharkhand and 14 of its 24 districts are critically vulnerable to climate change.

“Some of the main drivers of vulnerability are the prevalence of rain-fed agriculture, a high proportion of BPL population, high incidence of vector-borne disease and lack of crop insurance,” he said.

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The official pointed out that 69.98 per cent area of Jharkhand falls under desertification and land degradation, which is the highest in the country.

“Water stress and heat wave incidences have increased in the state. From 2000 to 2014, the state experienced the highest number of heatwaves. Palamu and Garhwa districts, in particular, have been suffering an extended dry spell,” he said.

Rising forest cover in Jharkhand is the only saving grace that has been protecting the state from the acute negativity of climate change, Kumar told PTI.

Altogether 10 divisional forest officers (DFOs), and officials from urban development, transport, water resource, agriculture, and mining departments participated in the workshop.

Speaking on the occasion, Ramgarh DFO Ved Prakash Kamboj said unscientific mining activities are harming the people living adjacent to the mining areas.

The state forest department organised the workshop here in coordination with nine other departments to draft a fresh Jharkhand state action plan on climate change (SAPCC).

The first SAPCC had been published in 2014 in the eastern state, the official said.

The outcomes of the workshop will be compiled soon and incorporated into the fresh SAPCC, a senior official said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)