Internal Displacement Caused by Disasters | 05 Jun 2020
Why in News
Recently, the ‘State of India's Environment 2020 in Figures’ report was published by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
- It states that India had around 50 lakh internal displacements caused by disasters and extreme weather conditions like floods, cyclones and drought in 2019.
Key Points
- Major Findings related to Internal Displacement:
- According to it, the internal displacements in India were the highest in the world in 2019.
- Internal Displacement refers to the forced movement of people within the country they live in, due to conflict, violence, development projects, natural disasters and climate change.
- It refers to the number of movements, not people, as individuals can be displaced several times.
- Natural Disasters: Displacements due to the flooding caused by the south-west monsoon and followed by Cyclone Fani, Vayu, Bulbul and drought conditions.
- Forced Migration: It has also caused many migrants to move for work from one state to another.
- Impact of Covid-19: Due to the impact of lockdown which was imposed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, many workers migrated to their homes because of lack of employment and food.
- 2011 Census Data on Migrant Populations:
- There were over 45 crore migrants in the country at the time, with the vast majority migrating within their own state.
- In 2011, over 1.7 crore new migrants had moved for employment purposes, mostly from rural to urban areas.
- According to it, the internal displacements in India were the highest in the world in 2019.
- Other Findings:
- The report outlines the status of sustainable development, livestocks, forests, water, waste, air, land, wildlife and other natural resources, environmental crimes and global economic risk.
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
- India faces major challenges in achieving all of the 17 SDGs, especially SDG1 (No Poverty) and SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation).
- Forest Cover and Water Resources:
- Forest cover has shrunk in 38% of districts, while five out of 21 river basins are now in a state of absolute water scarcity.
- Only Punjab managed to get an average national ranking in the management of water resources.
- Status of Tigers:
- It notes that there were 747 tigers more in 2018 than in 2014.
- However, the net area meant for tiger conservation shrunk by 179 square kilometres.
- Environmental Crime:
- The report found that in 2018, total 35,196 environmental crimes were recorded in the country.
- Majority of those cases are pending for police verification and in various courts.
- Global Risk:
- The global risk is determined as an uncertain event or condition that can cause significant negative impact on several countries or industries in the next ten years.
- The top 4 global risks in terms of likelihood are all found to be environment related as extreme weather, climate action failures, natural disaster and biodiversity loss.
- Under the top 4 risks in terms of impact, three were found to be environment related as climate action failure, biodiversity loss, extreme weather.
- In terms of the severity of impact over the next 10 years the top risk is failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Way Forward
- The report is an eye opener in terms of issues related to environment and biodiversity, development, poverty and internal migration and will help to understand their impacts.
- It would further facilitate better decision making in mitigating the related problems.
- There is an urgent need to take efforts towards conservation of environment, disposition of cases related to environmental crimes, providing livelihood to the migrants and achieving SDGs.
- For the same, the centre and all the states must collaborate to prevent any loss to the environment and humans as well.