Managing Climate Change in Rural Areas using ICT with reference to Thiruvallur District, Tamilnadu

Census 2011, states that 68.8 percent of rural population in India depends on climate susceptible sectors for their survival. India is one of the vulnerable country in the world exposed to climate-related disasters as 65 percent of India is drought prone, 12 percent flood prone, and 8 percent sensitive to cyclones. As a result, Climate Change is likely to challenge the livelihoods and causing damage to the natural resources. With this backdrop, this paper attempts to analyze with support of ICT, how it specifically help the rural life of the people in the study area to take appropriate decisions when there is poor awareness on the importance of sustainable natural resources time of climate change can be helpful for the poor to use ICT for their own needs at the time of degradation of natural resources rather than receiving information in the form of messages from government/NGOs? The study area is a suburb to Chennai, Ambatur Taluk (village) in Thirvallur district in the state of Tamil Nadu. This particular village population engaged in both the agricultural sector and in the allied activities. Based on the empirical evidence it is identified that rural people aware of the information related to weather and the use of ICT will help to identify their needs for their sustainable livelihood during climate change.