India saw extreme weather disasters on 241 of 273 days of 2022, claiming 2577 lives

India experienced extreme weather events between January and September this year which claimed 2,755 human lives and 69,000 animals across the country.

A latest report by India's environment think tank Centre for Science and Environment said that the "worse is happening now" with each month experiencing extreme weather days be it heatwaves, coldwaves, heavy rainfall, flooding, lightning, storms, cyclones, cloudburst and snowfall in different regions in the country through various seasons.

According to the report titled ' The State of Extreme Weather 2022', which analyzed extreme weather events in India in its first 273 days this year, more than 400,000 houses and 1.8 million hectares of cropland was damaged by weather disasters.

During a webinar ahead of the international climate conference COP 27 scheduled to begin on November 7 in Egypt, CSE Director General Sunita Narain said the extreme weather disasters were the "revenge of nature" and an impact of climate change.

Presenting the report, its authors Rajit Sengupta and Kiran Pandey said that on 241 out of the 273 days in 2022, India experienced extreme weather events.

While on 159 days the country saw lightning and storms, there was heavy rainfall, floods and landslides on 157 days, heatwaves on 66 days, coldwaves on 30 days, cloudburst on 11 days and snowfall on two days.

These events also claimed several lives.

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Around 1214 human lives were claimed by heavy rain, floods and landslides between June and September with north-eastern state of Assam being hit the worst with 221 deaths followed by central India's Madhya Pradesh with 112 deaths.

Nearly 954 people were killed due to lightning and storm between July and September with Madhya Pradesh recording maximum deaths at 164 followed by Maharashtra at 94.

The report said that India recorded 66 days of heatwaves which claimed 45 lives with the early onset in March until July. The western state of Rajasthan was worst hit by heatwaves which lasted 42 days followed by Maharashtra with 24 days of heatwaves and 34 deaths. Rajasthan did not record any death due to heatwave, the report said.

The country also experienced cold waves or cold days for 30 days with 22 days in January and eight days in February in two states and Union Territories. While Madhya Pradesh had 21 days of cold waves, it lasted for 20 days in Uttar Pradesh. No lives were claimed.

The 11 days of cloudburst killed 33 people in four states with maximum deaths in Himachal Pradesh at 12.

Two places - Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh experienced snowfall which lasted two days in the entire 273 days and claimed a total of eight lives. While one person died in Jammu and Kashmir, seven deaths were recorded in Arunachal Pradesh.

"While January saw cooler daytime temperatures, February remained almost half a degree colder than normal, resulting in 30 cold wave days and 12 hailstorm days. January was also abnormally wet. It was the seventh wettest since 1901 while February was drier than normal," said Kiran Pandey, Programme Director, Environment Resource Unit, CSE.

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The report also revealed that the months of March and April were unusually hot and led to the early onset of heatwaves with March being the warmest ever and the third driest in 121 years.

The experts noted that the monsoon season oscillated between dry and wet spells. It began in June with catastrophic floods in northeast India, especially Assam and Meghalaya.

"There was a dry spell in July and August in the northeast. However, the western part of the country suffered floods in July and flood-like conditions were caused in August in states of Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh," Pandey said.

Experts said that climate change is here and happening now and these extreme weather events are a result of the warming of planet.
India will be addressing the 27th climate conference in Sharm El Sheikh on November 7 with Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav leading an 18-member delegation.

According to the Indian government, the main agenda of the COP27 will be the failure of wealthy countries to keep the $100 billion pledge to aid the developing nations in dealing with the climate crisis to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees C.

The conference will be held from November 7 to 18 at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt.

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