CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD CHOICES IN THE WESTERN HIMALAYAN REGION, INDIA

Abstract

This doctoral thesis explores the dynamics of climate change in the Western Himalayan communities of India and is composed of five chapters. Global climate change has become the most significant challenge of modern times, confronting the lives and security of vulnerable societies worldwide. The anticipated impact of climatic variability will be severe on local communities, particularly those residing near high-risk prone zones such as coastal areas and mountain regions. Chapter 2 is based on the bibliometric analysis of the existing literature on local food habits to analyze the bidirectional association between climate change and the food choices of the local communities for adaptation policy. The findings show that the existing literature has failed to include the socio-ecological beliefs of traditional communities associated with food choices. In a traditional society like India, the family is an institution with norms and values. Further, it is a woman who usually cooks in a traditional society. Therefore, in Chapter 3, a bibliometric analysis of the existing literature is performed to explore how women’s choices related to food could unravel the gender dimensions in a traditional society. The local beliefs can serve as both objective and psychological refuge for local societies during climate-related emergencies. Nevertheless, only limited studies have acknowledged the significance of local food choices, providing a model for global responses to climate change. Hence, Chapter 4 explores the local community’s insights and awareness of climate change and assesses the impact on local food choices affecting their food security in the face of climate change in the Western Himalayan Region of India. Chapter 5 explores local communities’ food choices and shifts and examines the changes observed in the socio-cultural beliefs system due to climate change. Thus, results show that the shift in socio-cultural beliefs has significantly affected the food security of traditional societies during climate-induced emergencies in the mountain regions. Assuring women’s food security in a traditional community with deeply embedded socio-cultural beliefs is a challenging task for policymakers. Therefore, Chapter 6 examines the impact of climatic variability on the choice of traditional food from gender perspectives and suggests gender-inclusive measures for evidence-based climate change adaptation and food security policies. The results based on the exploratory and thematic analysis showed that traditional communities’ gendered norms of dietary habits significantly affect women’s food security. Finally, Chapter 7 summarizes the essential findings and discusses the policy implications of this thesis.