The role of socio-culture culture settings in influencing peoples capacities to deal with risk from natural hazards and to adapt or reject modern safety measures

“A case study of Mulkhow Union Council Chitral”

Chitral is the northern most district of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. It has the total population of about three lakh seventy five thousand (3,75000). It is situated between the snow clad lofty mountains of Hindu Raj to the East and Hindu Kush to the west.

Between these lofty Mountains there are very beautiful and famous valleys, lakes, Glaciers and Peaks. Vallies like the Kalash valley which has international recognition due to the unique culture and tradition of its people. Beside this the Garam Chashma Valley, the Mastooj Valley the Shishi Koh and the Tarich Valley also attracts tourists from various parts of the world and Pakistan. Chitral is also famous for its Lakes (the Shandoor Lake about 4sq Km where the only highest Pologround of the world is situated), Glaciers (Chiantar glacier which is the source of Kabul River) and peaks (Trich Mir peak which is 25250 feet’s and ranks in 11 position in the world for its height, Storonaal Peak, Booni zom, and many
more). In short we can say that God has gifted chitral with natural beauty that’s why the

livelihood of most of the Chitrali population mainly depends on nature i.e. primitive methods of livelihood like agriculture, herding, hunting etc.

Administratively Chitral District is divided into five Teshil namely Drosh, Chitral, Lotkoh, Mulkhow, Torkhow and Mastuj. We have selected Mulkhow Tehsil for our study.

The reason behind selection of Mulkhow Union Council is that it is considered as one of the driest Regions of Chitral. Though most of the permanently snow clad mighty Peaks of
Pakistan like Trich Mir, Noshaq, Istronaal (more then 24500 feet’s) are located in this valley but due to its geographic constraints the valley remains dry and barren in most part of the year. The purpose of this paper is “to get baseline information regarding adaptation to climate change by the local people and their capacity to deal with risk from natural hazards”.