NEW DELHI: The extended monsoon has left behind a trail of destruction with 1,685 deaths reported by 14 states till September 30, hundreds still missing. There has been no official statistics available on the extent of economic damages caused by the unpredictable rains even as floods have become a recurring phenomenon.

This monsoon season, India has recorded highest rainfall in 25 years with climate change leaving behind massive loss of human lives, shelters, livestock, crop and infrastructure. At least 80% more districts have been inundated since August 16, taking the total count of flood-affected districts across the country to 277.

An assessment made by the disaster management division of the Union Home Ministry shows that over 22 lakh people have been evacuated so far and 8,700 relief camps set up across these states to provide temporary shelter to the displaced population. It’s mostly the poor which faces the brunt of disasters with the UN office for disaster risk reduction (UNDRR) estimating that more than 26 million people globally are pushed into poverty every year as a result of these events.

Of all the disasters recorded globally in the 20 years between 1998-2017, floods accounted for 44%. Climate change is causing more havoc than geophysical events like earthquakes and tsunamis with floods and storm together accounting for 72% of all disasters, according to UNDRR.

That makes India’s development highly risky and skewed where increase in number of disasters have only exposed a large number of its population to rising inequality. A UNDRR study released last year estimated India’s economic losses at $80 billion between 1998 and 2017. This was just a conservative estimate as the study found that losses from up to 87% of disasters have not been reported by countries like India.

Even by these estimates, India has been ranked among the world’s top five countries in absolute economic losses. Globally, disaster losses during this period have been estimated at $3 trillion. With India proposing to invest more than $1.5 trillion in infrastructure over the next decade, disaster risk reduction becomes a challenge.

In the ongoing monsoon mayhem, the highest deaths of 377 people have been reported from Maharashtra , followed by 225 in West Bengal , 130 in Bihar and 180 each in Kerala and MP. Gujarat , which is affected by floods every year, has reported 150 deaths so far, Karnataka 105 and Assam 97. Details from many north-eastern states are yet to pour in.

Though India is yet to develop a robust mechanism to capture all disaster losses, an estimate by one of its agencies says annual loss of human lives on account of just floods is an average 1,600, while loss of properties is more than Rs 1,800 crore. Besides floods, India has been experiencing hundreds of deaths every year due to storms, heatwaves and other extreme weather-related incidents.

Read this report in Bengali

