Climate Change Livelihood Vulnerability of Tribal Community and Its Determinants: A Cross-sectional Study in Drought-Prone Region of West Bengal, India

Introduction: The tribal livelihoods are mainly dependent on forest resources while they are facing challenges socially and economically due to climate change which makes them vulnerable. According to the 2011 Census of India, 5.7% of West Bengal’s total population belongs to Schedule tribes against 8.6% tribal population in India. Objective: The paper tries to assess climate change vulnerability by formulating index based on tribal household level. Second, is to find the percentage of households who are more vulnerable tribes in 2015 and in 2020. Third, is to estimate the factors of climate change for which livelihood becomes vulnerability of tribal communities. Method and Material: This paper has been based on field survey data collected from fifty (50) households who are tribes in the village Kamo located in Bankura district, a drought-prone district of south West Bengal in the years of 2015 and 2020. The repeated sampling technique was followed for the collection of data. The study has calculated climate change tribal vulnerability index based on modified version of (Hahn et al., Global Environmental Change 19:74–88, 2009) methodology. The calculation of such index consists of the main indicators like index of socio-economy, livelihood, forest dependency, social security and health, and sub-indicators for each main indicator are chosen in consultation with local conditions where the tribal communities live and from the literature review. The model of beta regression is used to determine the factors of livelihood vulnerability of tribes. Result: The result of the study showed that the climate change tribal livelihood vulnerability index is found to be 0.49 for 2020, and it is 0.44 for 2015. The mean difference of tribal vulnerability index is statistically significant by “t” test. The result further reveals that the percentage of more of tribal vulnerable households (56%) in 2020 is higher than that for the year of 2015 (26%). The climate change tribal livelihood vulnerability is caused by socio-economic variables and climate variable.