Did you know that out of a total of 273 days between January 1 to September 30, India recorded a natural disaster for 242 days which translates as 88 per cent of the total duration.

The finding was noted in a press statement issued today, on November 1 by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down to Earth news magazine.

“What the country has witnessed so far in 2022 is the new abnormal in a warming world. There is a clear spike in frequency and intensity of extreme events that we are seeing,” CSE director general Sunita Narain was quoted in the statement.

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“Our report provides season-wise, month-wise and region-wise analysis of extreme weather events and their associated loss and damage. It is an attempt to build an evidence base on the frequency and expanding geography of extreme weather events in India. This is extremely important as the data that is publicly available on this subject is fragmented and fails to provide the overall picture,” Narain added. 

The report informed that disasters that were recorded in India in the first nine months of this year have claimed 2,755 lives, affected 1.8 million hectares of crop area, destroyed over 416,667 houses and killed close to 70,000 livestock.

Assam reported the highest number of damaged houses and animal deaths.

Meanwhile, Rajit Sengupta, associate editor of Down To Earth and one of the authors of the report pointed out that this estimation of loss and damage is probably an underestimate as data for each event -including losses of public property or crop loss – has not been collated or estimated.

Here are some of the major findings of the joint assessment by CSE and Down To Earth:

• With an event every second day, Madhya Pradesh saw the highest number of days with extreme weather events, but Himachal Pradesh saw the highest number of human fatalities — 359 deaths. Madhya Pradesh and Assam witnessed 301 human deaths each.

• Assam reported the highest number of damaged houses and animal deaths.

• Karnataka, which experienced an extreme weather event on 82 days, accounted for more than 50 per cent of the crop area affected in the country. Madhya Pradesh, as per official records, did not report any crop area damage. Sengupta says this could be due to “gaps in loss and damage reporting”

Also Read: Uttar Pradesh: First drought, and now 683% excess rainfall in October wreaks havoc on farmers

• The central and north-western regions reported the highest number of days with extreme weather events at 198 and 195, respectively. In terms of human lives lost, central India topped the list with 887 deaths, followed by the east and northeast (783 deaths).

• Warmest, wettest, driest: In 2022, India recorded its seventh wettest January since 1901. This March was also the warmest ever and the third driest in 121 years. It was also the country’s third warmest April, 11th warmest August and 8th warmest September since 1901.

• Eastern and northeastern India saw its warmest and driest July in 121 years. The region also recorded its second warmest August and fourth warmest September in 2022.

• In terms of the ‘nature’ of the event, all types of extreme weather have been seen in the past nine months – lightning and storms were spread over 30 states and claimed 773 lives. Every day of the three months of monsoon – from June to August – indicate heavy to very heavy and extremely heavy rainfall in some parts of the country.

• Heat waves claimed 45 lives, but what is not captured in the official data is the impact of the prolonged high temperatures on people’s well-being in north India – from farmers to construction workers — and how they coped with the intense and searing heat.

• The good news is that fatalities because of cyclones were few – only two lives were lost according to available data from cyclones that destroyed 95,066 hectares in the country.

Commenting on the disaster response to the cyclones this year, Narain was quoted “This is because of the amazing work done by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on cyclone forecasting so that there is adequate warning to governments. It is also because state governments – particularly those in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal — have improved their systems of disaster management.”