A study, using participatory vulnerability assessment tools, was carried out in Kadampur, and Mirtung villages on the bank of the Baulaha Khola in Nawalparasi District in central inner Tarai, Nepal. Enquiries were based on a checklist prepared in advance and secondary information from other areas in the vicinity was incorporated. The study was able to accumulate information on changes, impacts and adaptations that have occurred over the past 40 years. Existing literature on climate change, its impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation support the collected information. The area lies on the Tarai belt just south of the Siwalik Hills, the youngest and geologically most fragile of the Himalayan ranges; vulnerable to any sort of environmental changes and hazards. Irrigation on the Tarai is dependent on the upper catchments (which fall in the Siwaliks) for water resources in the form of stream flow and the recharging of underground aquifers. At the same time, the region is susceptible to flash floods that destroy lives and livelihood assets. These are increasing in frequency and magnitude.
Migration to the area from the mountains started some 45 years ago after the reduction of malaria. Before this the Tarai was covered with dense climax vegetation with few very confined settlements of indigenous people resistant to Malaria. The rich biodiversity of the past has been supplanted by a dense and diverse human population. With increasing human population and the resultant degradation of ecosystem health both in the Siwalik and the Tarai, this narrow belt is now witnessing a scarcity of available water, an increasing frequency of disasters, particularly flash floods, and a rise in conflicts over shared resources. It is generally agreed that impacts of climate change further worsen such consequences. This article discusses how vulnerabilities to disasters are changing in the study area in the context of changing climate and how people are responding to the impacts of these changes.
