New Delhi: As many as 2,038 lives were lost in India in 2019 due to extreme weather events, according to reports published in the State of CSE and Down to Earth’s State of India’s Environment 2020. This figure was 1,396 in 2018.
India recorded 23 extreme weather events in 2018 and nine in 2019. In terms of deaths due to the extreme weather events, 48 per cent people died in the country, the highest in Asia.
The extreme weather events include conditions like drought, wildfire, flood, landslides, extreme temperatures, fog and storm.
“The world witnessed 286 and 228 extreme weather events in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Of these, India recorded 23 in 2018 and nine in 2019. Forty-eight per cent of the deaths in Asia were due to extreme weather events that happened in India. In 2019, there were more deaths in India even though the number of such events were fewer – 2,038 people died in 2019 due to extreme weather events, compared to 1,396 in 2018,” the report said.
January saw the end of the north-east monsoon season with a 44 per cent deficit rain, the third-highest deficit in the past 10 years.
“North India had one of the coldest and driest winters ever, as the extreme conditions spilled into February. In March, an unseasonal heat wave roasted Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. In April, thunderstorms with cloud-to-ground lightning strikes began affecting states in east, central and north-east India. The month ended with the formation of a rare pre-monsoon cyclone (Fani),” the report added.
However, the months of May and June were marked by a spate of heat waves. “By the first week of June, the country had undergone 73 spells of heatwave conditions, 11 of them extreme. The maximum deaths occurred in Bihar.”
Twelve states in the country received over 60 per cent surplus rains in the second week of July. “The resultant floods in Bihar and Assam affected over 10 million people and claimed 168 lives. The rains came in short bursts of heavy downpours followed by drier periods, a pattern that continued till September. In all, there were 1,250 events of extreme rainfall during the year, or more than three per day,” the report revealed.
In October and November, cyclones Hikaa, Kyarr and Maha in the Arabian Sea and cyclone Bulbul in the Bay of Bengal formed and intensified in quick succession. With cyclone Pawan in December, the total number of cyclones in the northern Indian Ocean region reached eight. This is the highest number of cyclones in a single year since 1976, says the report.
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