Winter second most deadly killer among natural disasters

Government data says winters are the second biggest cause for deaths due to natural disasters in India, next only to lightning. Between 2002 and 2012, as many as 10,740 people died from exposure to cold and avalanche, while lightning claimed 27,338.

Updated on: Dec 22, 2013, 16:16:00 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Government data says winters are the second biggest cause for deaths due to natural disasters in India, next only to lightning.

Between 2002 and 2012, as many as 10,740 people died from exposure to cold and avalanche, while lightning claimed 27,338.

On an average, 826 people in India died every year in this period because of harsh winters. An increasing trend in deaths was reported after 2007.

A possible reason could be the cooling trend in winter temperatures in north-western and southern India.

A Central Statistical Organisation (Cso) report, which is based on Indian Meteorological Department’s (Imd’s) temperature data since 1901, said a cooling trend was visible in the two regions.

But, it said surface temperatures needed to be recorded on "long term basis at different climatic zones" to reach a firm conclusion.

IMD data says the minimum temperature in 1901 for India was between 14.16 degrees Celsius and 16.5 degrees Celsuis from October to February, the months when winters prevail in India, especially in the Himalayan region.

In 2012, the minimum temperature ranged from 13.8 degrees Celsius to 16.4 degrees Celsius in the same period.

A look at the recent past shows direct co-relation between fall in minimum temperatures and winter deaths.

As many as 1,037 people died from exposure to cold and avalanche in 2012, when the minimum temperature fell to 13.68 degrees Celsius — lowest since 2001.

Similarly, high deaths were reported in 2008 and 2002, when the minimum temperature for the country fell below 14 degrees Celsius.

"The deaths are higher in plains of India where a large number of poor are not equipped to deal with sweeping wintry conditions emanating from snow-laden peaks in the north," said an Imd official.

There is no national scheme to provide assistance to the state governments to provide warm shelters to the poor during winter months, the official added.

The data made available by the Cso in its report on ‘Statistics Related to Climate Change’ showed that altogether 87,329 people died due to natural disasters between 2000 and 2012.

Around 31% of them died due to lightning, which is not considered a major natural disaster. The third biggest reason are floods, which claimed about 10,533 between 2000 and 2012, the report said.

Nature’s fury

Total deaths (2000-12): 87,329

Major causes

Lightning: 27,338
Cold and avalanche: 10,740
Flood: 10,553
Heat stroke: 5,550
Landslide: 4,285

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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