Impacts of Climate Change on Food Chain in India

This article discusses the impacts of climate change on the food chain in India, including its effects on agriculture, biodiversity, and ecosystems. It explores the challenges faced by India due to climate change and its implications for the future.

Running Head: Impacts of climate change on food chain in India 1
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Impacts of climate change on food chain in India 2
Introduction
Climate change is the variation of weather of a given place over a specific period of time.
Climatic factors include amount of sunlight, mean temperature and level of precipitation. These
factors of climate change are outcomes of activities of human beings that changes the content of
the atmosphere together with the normal timely climate change. The rise in annual average
temperatures cause a lot problems to animals, plants and human beings. Climate change also
interfere with maximum and minimum temperature which may cause extreme events of storms
and rainfall (IPCC, 2019).
The effects of climate change have become extreme. The challenges it poses does not just
endanger our lives, but poses risk on the world’s future. India is one of the most affected country
by the effects of climate change. Climate change causes changes in precipitation and temperature
which leads to reduction in crop production rates causing changes in food production and
consumption. This interferes with the health of animals and human beings by altering diet
composition, posing health related issues and deaths (Gautam & Sharma, 2012).
The rise in the annual temperature has led to occurrence of unexpected cases of weather in
countries with warm climate like India. Unpredictable shifting of monsoon winds have led to
flooding of some parts of India while others experience extreme droughts. The high frequency of
droughts and flooding has impacted India’s crop production. North western region of India have
undergone significant drop in amount of crop yields while the coastal region are being affected
by climate change and have led to higher ocean waves (Kumar & Gautam, 2014).
Climate change impacts are being significantly felt in India because it is extremely
exploiting its natural resources by destructing the environment through urbanization,
industrialization and general economic development. India is going through rampant
environmental and social-economic challenge as it struggle to conserve its diminishing natural
resources. The rate of air and water contamination is increasing on daily basis due to rampant
atmospheric pollution. Additionally, areas that are highly affected by climate change in India
include biodiversity, ecosystems and agricultural activities. Impacts of climate change on these
sectors directly affect the India’s food chain.

Impacts of climate change on food chain in India 3
Droughts like the one that occurred in 2016 affected the whole country. Drought led to
depletion of water, cases of indebtedness and suicidal activities of farmers due to extreme effects
on agriculture, which primarily depend on rain water. The drought caused exhaustion of water in
dams, absence of cattle feeds like hay and fodder. This led to the death of livestock and other
wild animals due to starvation and lack of water (Sarah & Vimal, 2018).
India is a special country with unique climatic regime, land escapement and biodiversity
because of the wide range of climatic conditions of varying seasonal precipitation and
temperature from one region to the other. The variation of climate in India also gives a wide
range of biological resources in the existing natural habitat. The favorable climatic conditions in
regions like Himalaya contains a lot of flora and fauna in its sanctuaries, national parks and
biosphere reserves.
Temperatures in India usually rise in areas like Tibetan Plateau causing rampant melting of
snow and ice. Melting reduce the amount of ice while increasing the amount of river runoff
which end up causing disastrous floods sweeping away all existing sources of livelihoods. This
causes death of plant and animals in the area leaving behind imbalanced ecosystem. Every
ecosystem has specific type of species depending on the part of the range, and they move with
the changes in climatic conditions. The species may also become extinct due fragmentation and
loss of habitat which may occur as outcomes of severe climate changes (Mishra & Shah, 2018).
There have been long spells of dry seasons at the northern plains of India which have led to
severe drought conditions. The reduction in the size of glaciers has decreased the amount of
water flowing in the perennial rivers hence reducing the amount of ground water, directly or
indirectly interfering with the biodiversity of the region. Life cycles of most wild animals and
plants are affected seasons and existing climatic conditions. Most developmental stages of living
organisms are mainly dependent on length of the day and others amount of precipitation or
variation in temperature. This may also cause extinction or changes in the number and
distribution of species (Pritchard, 2017).
Extreme changes in pattern if climatic conditions interfere with ecological wealth of India.
Recently, there is a high rate of decrease in the amount of forest cover. This poses a big risk to
most native species which basically depend on the forests either for supply of food or for habitat.
The dense forests of Himalayas serve as a the main source of water for India, supplying a lot of

Impacts of climate change on food chain in India 4
fresh water to most people who live in the plain of Indo Gangetic through the perennial systems
of rivers. Therefore, its depletion endangers these natives who depend on it for livelihood.
Himalayas is a source of many rivers that supply water for power generation, industrial,
commercial and agricultural production. Current climatic changes is now making them believe
about the area being water rich a myth.
Global warming which refers to rising of mean temperatures of the ocean and the earth’s
surface began increasing since early 19th century and is expected to keep rising. Global warming
is caused by increasing accumulation of greenhouse gases released by activities of human being
such as burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Rising global temperature will cause sea levels
to rise and will alter the pattern and quantity of precipitation and possible subtropical desert
expansion. If the Indian temperatures will rise by 4˚ C above the pre-industrial levels, the
boundary for survival of natural systems will be exceeded by far. Therefore the wide range of
ecosystem features which human beings depend for survival would not be preserved.
Global warning poses fatal impact. It will cause melting of polar ice caps which will
increase the depth of sea levels. These ice caps bring imbalance in the ecosystem. Some species
of animals will be endangered by changing landscapes and temperature increase. The effect of
melting ice caps is seen at the ocean as the darker colours absorb sunlight thus increasing
warming effects on the earth’s surface. Anthropogenic global warming has effects in terms of
economy. Rampant heat waves and droughts are the effects of global warming. Rising
temperatures increase the chances of occurrence of stronger hurricanes. There is a high chance
that in future some of India’s towns that are found at sea banks such as Chennai and Mumbai
may be flooded due to global warming (Jain & Kumar, 2012). Its effects will include reduced
population of animals, plants and human beings. As India’s temperatures increase causing
warming, insects that carry diseases migrate to the region carrying plague and other diseases
which they might infect human beings or other animals. The diseases cause death among the
affected thus causing reduction in the number of respective populations (Bhartiya & Choudhary,
2012).
Scientific studies shows that global warming would affect agricultural activities in India.
Some of the factors of climate which have impacts on productivity of agriculture are high
temperature, heat waves heavy rainfall and extreme cold. They affect crop production either

Impacts of climate change on food chain in India 5
negatively or positively. India experiences different weather events due to the climate change in
its different regions which reduce amount of crop production. Changing nature of the mentioned
events of weather affect process of plant psychology and cycle of crop growth. Drought effects
due to global warming have severe effects on water resources, agriculture and food security in
India. Increase of precipitation and rise of temperatures and above the threshold values may
interfere with transpiration and photosynthesis processes in plants thus causing shortage of food
supply to human beings and other animals that depend on them. High rainfall causes floods
which physically damage crops (Ruchita & Rohit, 2017). Global warming effects have caused
melting and depletion of glaciers and this has left the Indian community worried about their
future (Kulkami, Gadgil, & Patwardhan, 2016).
The global warming cause changes to the dynamic flow of ice which may lead to rising of
the sea level. The rising sea level in India have already submerged some of its low-lying islands
in the Sundarbans causing displacement of many people. States such as Assam are feeling the
impact of increased flooding and landslides (Stefan, Perette, & Martin, 2012). These impacts
have led to rapid coral bleaching that has killed more than 70 percent of corals in the reef
ecosystems of Andamans and Lakshadweep. These events are also attributed to rising ocean
temperatures due to extreme global warming, and is expected to increase with time. Rising sea
levels have also caused depletion of fresh water and extreme disturbance of processes of
morphology (Simon, 2010).
Extreme climate changes is making Bangladesh loose land along its coast line, and this is
really affecting the residence because most of them depend on agriculture. They depend on rice
farming for subsistence and income generation, therefore, if necessary steps are not taken to
improve the current situation of global warming the situation would be worsening every year.
People may fail to secure income, food and shelter thus low living standards (Mittal, 2012).
Droughts greatly affect several components of the environment and ecosystem. Some of the
environmental indicators of drought include amount of moisture content in the soil, amount of
rainfall, depth of ground water and availability of water in the reservoirs. Drought reduce the
amount of water in water catchment areas, amount of water in the soil and table of water in the
ground. Survival of biodiversity depends on the atmospheric and soil water. Depending on the
extent, duration and intensity of drought, its impacts may be permanent or temporal. Decrease in

Impacts of climate change on food chain in India 6
the quantity of water may change the food supply to various life states, which may consequently
change the food web. Shortage of food and water may subject wild animals into diseases.
Insufficient water supply may also interfere with the distribution of species. Such kind of
unfavourable climatic conditions cause further decrease in the size of population of vulnerable
species. Decrease in the amount of wetlands reduces the aquatic flora and fauna. Low humidity
and high temperatures increase occurrences of forest fires which lead to reduction of forest cover
and species of wild animals and plants (Chandra, 2017).
Extreme impacts of drought on wildlife have been experienced in India. For example, the
national bird of India, peacock, is becoming endangered in the central parts of India. Reports
show that more than fifty peacocks in 2013 and sixteen in 2016 died during summer drought in
Morena, Madhya Pradesh district. Reports also claim that, drought has led to the loss of other
wild animals including avifauna and amphibian. These adverse conditions of droughts gives
poachers an ample time to execute their mission. During dry season animals tend to visit a few
available waterholes. Poachers poison the waterholes so as to capture their target animals.
Drought also compels animals out of the jungle into the neighbouring villages where they are
easily attacked by the poachers.
Droughts have a lot of effects on the levels of groundwater. Droughts that occur frequently
forces farmers and the whole society to extract aquifer, which leads to groundwater table
depletion. This causes damage to the ecology through loss of wetlands and streams, and land
subsidence. The aquifer stress in Aravalli part of Rajasthan, switches its position periodically.
Hydrological stress starts slowly but withdraws quickly during drought while vegetative stress
begins faster but reacts slowly during drought. Generally, the vegetation retains its normal state
of health for longer period of time since they are used to environments with little amount of
water (Mishra & Liu, 2014).
Change in the content of environmental ingredients of one region may have an impact on
the environment of the other region. During drought season there are cases of sudden increase in
chloride levels and dust. The effects of air pollution from one region of the country affect the
lives of people in the other regions. Sulfate aerosols not only contribute to droughts in most areas
but it also offset global warming by bringing cooling effect into the atmosphere. The rising

Impacts of climate change on food chain in India 7
temperatures and relative water loss is disastrous to all existing natural ecosystems including
species of plants and animals (Aref, Atta, & Ghamade, 2011).
Forest fires which began with the development of forests pose danger to both the wealth of
the forest and the whole regime of flora and fauna. They interfere with the ecology and bio-
diversity of the affected region. The most affected regions in India is the Himalayan forest
especially, Garhwal Himalayas which has been burning regularly during summer. Wildfires
destroy grasslands, trees and herbs by interfering with their diversity and cause long term effects
such as extinction of some endangered species (Manoj & Abhishek, 2014).
Frequent repetition of wildfires can turn shrub-areas into grasslands and fire exclusion can turn
grassland to shrub-areas and forest. Wild animals are affected by forest fires through destruction
of their habitat, sources of food and species composition. Wild fires affect the physic-chemical
states of forest soils such as availability of nutrients, organic matter and soil biota (Jhariya,
2010). The impact of fire on plant and animal species is intensified by overgrazing, insect
infestation and catastrophic diseases. Some other effects include increased seed production,
higher plant mortality rates, increased plant flowering and other communal effects. Fire affected
areas in India will experience rapid reduction in diversity of species of wildlife, both plants and
animals. Generally, fire has direct impact on people who live in the area, thereby affecting their
livelihood and health (Boerner, Huang, & Hart, 2009).
Studies have also reported that fire also plays an important role in management of forests
through various ways. Fires burn down litter heaps thus recycling of nutrient which enhanced
flourishing of new vegetation. Forest fires reduce the competition among species, enabling trees
that are already existing to grow bigger. It controls the intrusion or growth of unwanted plants
and facilitate flourishing of desired food plants such as leguminous plants which are important
for forage and improvement of quality of soil. Fires leave behind snags that give points of
nesting by birds such as woodpeckers. Fires stimulate rapid vegetation growth at rainy season in
areas where there was little grazing land. Forest fires help in destroying disease causing insects
especially during their breeding seasons. Germination of some plant seeds are stimulated by fires
as well as it prepare seedbeds either artificially or naturally (Knorr, Pytharoulis, & Petropoulos,
2011).

Impacts of climate change on food chain in India 8
Conclusion
This essay has discussed the developing concerns that are faced by India’s ecosystem,
biodiversity and general food chain with regard to climate change. There is need to focus on
addressing climate change in India which is causing destruction to all sectors of lives from wild
animals, plants to human beings. The government of India should implement the laws governing
environment protection to minimize emission of greenhouse gases which turn out to be a big
contributor to rapid climate changes in the country. There is also an urge to conduct a domestic
research on pollution activities across the country. This will help in measuring the extent to
which climate change is affecting different sectors of the ecosystem and develop proper measure
to control and manage causes of climate change.

Impacts of climate change on food chain in India 9
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