Climate change may pose risk to country's security: Study

NEW DELHI: Climate change may pose a risk to the country's security as the impending rising sea-level and melting of glaciers threaten to redraw the world map, a study has warned.

Conducted by Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) working group, the study, released by union environment minister Jairam Ramesh, delves into the possible adverse impact of climate change on the strategy and tactics of the armed forces.

"The glacier meltdown may become very rapid, which has its own military implications.

"Flash floods in the shared rivers and spread of vector borne diseases may further fuel mutual suspicion between not-so-friendly upstream and downstream countries besides having negative impact on the capability of the military," the study said.

Trying to establish a link between climate change and national security, the study says that climate change is not about wars and is more about gradual build-up stresses, tensions and sometimes violent conflicts due to breakdown of physical and environmental systems.

"The study goes into detail about the influx of migrants due to increasing sea level and its growing impact on the capability of the armed forces from the perspective of sea, air and land," Arvind Gupta, a team member, said.