Climate Change Adaptation for at Risk Dryland Rural Landscapes through Landscape Management Strategies: a case of Nagavalli Village Environs, Chamarajanagar

Abstract

Chamarajanagar, one of the under-developed districts of Karnataka, lies in the rainshadow region of the western ghats and this region with a predominant dryland (Ahmad, et al., 2017) rural landscape– characterized by low rainfall and low waterholding capacity of soils, had supported livelihoods traditionally through rainfed agriculture and associated rural trades. With the advent of the green revolution in post-independent India, the agrarian transition from dry grain complex to high-input commercial farming (Kumar, et al., 2020) has been increasing the vulnerability of this drought-susceptible region through privatized and extractive practices of land and water such as deep aquifer drilling, monocropping, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, water-intensive crops, and quarrying. These practices have been degrading the landscape by way of depleting water-table, poor waste management, and pollution of surface water and soil. In the climate-change context, marginal communities that make up a sizeable portion of the demography are increasingly vulnerable to drought and flood risks threatening livelihoods and food security. The increasing landcover area of long-term water-intensive commercial crops and the resultant habitat degradation also put the ecosystem stability at risk, meaning the biota, which would have further implications on the above-mentioned human communities and their livelihoods. A micro-watershed of the Suvarnavathi river basin as a typical example of the dryland region is examined. This thesis attempts at understanding the study region within the framework of landscape ecology through precedent works in the areas of spatial planning at the landscape scale (Selman, 2012), patch-corridor-matrix model studies (Forman, 1995; Dramstad, et al., 1996) to document the changes, issues, gaps, and through a landscape approach (Sayer, et al., 2013) to identify the dynamics- multiple scales, functionalities, and stakeholders. The data collection methods used were traverse survey, stakeholder interviews, focus group discussions, GIS mapping, and soil and water quality tests of samples from the study area. This vision is to work towards developing landscape management strategies at the farm level and guidelines for community-managed resources to revive landscape health and socio-ecological resilience.