ASSAR's work in Tamil Nadu

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India consists of a diverse set of ecosystems with a range of risks, climatic and non-climatic exposures, differential vulnerability profiles, and various institutional regimes. The country is complex, with multi-hazard environments and climate change hotspots. Negative impacts on key rural production systems like agriculture and forestry are already evident, and a range of losses and impacts across agricultural, water and forest-based systems are projected for the future. Major livelihood transitions are expected to take place along the rural-urban continuum, coupled with increasing urbanisation. A significant proportion of the population lives in extreme poverty and is highly vulnerable to both everyday risks and the impacts of extreme events. The country also faces serious institutional and governance challenges, compounded by contested growth dynamics, rural-urban migration, and fluxes in the historically-established formal and informal sectors. These dynamics will combine to create pockets of risk where concentrations of historical and emergent challenges are amplified by climatic variability.

India’s Moyar-Bhavani sub-region comprises a diverse landscape with abundant natural resources, complex systems of governance, and a multitude of actors with varying degrees of influence and levels of interaction within the system. Along with diverse wildlife and physiographic features, the landscape has very high human density, and a long history of human use. The area is inhabited by diverse indigenous tribal communities, as well as a large population of scheduled castes (socially-marginalised groups). Major livelihood activities include agriculture, fisheries, pastoralism, and collection of non-timber forest products. The forest-agricultural socio-ecological system is a key aspect here.

There are existing stressors within the agricultural system including groundwater dependency, decreasing labour, low productivity, and low levels of mechanisation. Risks caused by the occurrence of droughts, increasing temperature profile, declining crop yields and livestock mortality are some of the sub-region’s key challenges. With ongoing deforestation, the proliferation of invasive alien species, landscape fragmentation, and local extinction impacts, natural ecosystems suffer from rapid land use changes. Considering the essential role that native ecosystems play in ensuring tribal livelihoods, climate change is projected to intensify existing vulnerabilities and amplify risks.

Key insights

Climate change and climate variability have resulted in increased temperatures and unpredictable monsoons. Despite observed declines in rainfall and recurrent drought, some agricultural areas are greening due to a growing dependence on groundwater, and unauthorised lift irrigation from perennial rivers.

An increase in agricultural water use, driven by government policy (e.g., free electricity), has enabled a shift from dryland agriculture to intensively-irrigated agriculture that may not be sustainable under future climates.

The agrarian transition driven by changing aspirations has increased household incomes, especially of large and medium farmers. However, this increase has had little impact on women's capacity as they often cannot access these incomes for their own investments. The increased movement of men into non-agricultural livelihoods has opened up space for women in agriculture, but they remain constrained by a lack of asset ownership and consequent inabilities to increase land productivity.

Although food security has improved in the region through the targeted Public Distribution System, undernourishment persists and may worsen with increasing urbanisation, shifts to high-value commercial farming (despite the risks), and water scarcity.

Invasive alien species are adversely impacting native biodiversity and communities. Yet a lack of tenure, and the extensive network of protected areas in the region, complicate the use of these species by forest-dependent communities to supplement agricultural incomes.

Poor access to services, and lack of knowledge and support constrain women, while men continue to maintain hegemony over technology-related, and indeed, more remunerative tasks. Education, however, remains one of the biggest assets to women, which allows them to diversify their livelihoods out of agriculture.

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Country partners and contact details

Click here to view the regional team members