Nearly 150,000 Indians have died in the past 51 years because of extreme weather

Near 150,000 Indians have died prior to now 51 years due to excessive climate, says a brand new World Meteorological Group (WMO) report.

A brand new evaluation by WMO printed on Could 22, 2023, said that 138,377 Indians died between 1970 and 2021 in 573 climate-related disasters. That is the second-highest quantity in Asia after Bangladesh.

Greater than 5 lakh Bangladeshis have died as a consequence of 281 occasions in these 51 years. Myanmar recorded the third-highest variety of human casualties in Asia, principally to the 2008 Cyclone Nargis which struck its Irrawaddy delta area and killed 138,366.

China had the fourth-highest variety of casualties — 88,457 as a consequence of 740 occasions. Nearly 1 / 4 of deaths resulted from a flood in 1975.

These numbers had been a part of up to date information within the WMO’s Atlas of Mortality and Financial Losses from Climate, Local weather and Water-related hazards. The figures had been launched as part of the World Meteorological Congress, which began its quadrennial session on Could 22, 2023.

The primary agenda of this yr’s World Meteorological Congress is to make sure that everybody on this planet is protected by early warning programs by the tip of 2027.

The WMO additionally revealed that excessive climate, local weather and water-related occasions brought on 11,778 reported disasters between 1970 and 2021. These accounted for simply over 2 million deaths and $4.3 trillion in financial losses.

Over 90 per cent of the dying toll was recorded in growing international locations. Asia reported 3,612 disasters attributed to climate, local weather and water extremes, The best on this planet. It additionally recorded 984,263 deaths, which is 47 per cent of all deaths worldwide, with tropical cyclones being the main reason behind reported deaths.

These disasters price the continent $ 1.4 trillion in financial losses. North America, Central America and the Caribbean reported the second-highest variety of excessive climate occasions (2,107) which resulted in 77, 454 deaths and $2 trillion in financial losses.

Africa (1,839 disasters), Europe (1,784 disasters), South-West Pacific (1,493 disasters) and South America (943 disasters) made up the remainder of the record. A lot of the reported financial losses had been attributed to storm-related disasters, and extra particularly, to tropical cyclones.

Whereas droughts brought on 95 per cent of African deaths, excessive temperatures had been the main reason behind reported deaths in Europe. The report additionally talked about that the mortality charges had fallen because of early warning programs. So, guaranteeing everybody has entry to early warning programs is crucial to higher adaptation in opposition to excessive climate occasions.