Natural disasters cost India $80 billion, reveals UNISDR

NEW DELHI: A study released by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) on October 10, 2018 said that in a period of 20-years from 1998 to 2017 India suffered economic losses of $80 billion due to natural disasters.

India has been ranked fourth among the world’s top five countries (US, China, Japan, India, Puerto Rico) in absolute economic losses caused by natural calamities. The damages caused by disasters have increased by more than 120 per cent in the last 20 years as compared to the preceding post two decades (1978-1997).

MamiMizutori, head of UNISDR, said, “The report makes it clear that economic losses from extreme weather events are unsustainable and a major brake on eradicating poverty in hazard-exposed parts of the world.”

The UNISDR said, “It is also clear that the economic losses suffered by low and lower-middle income countries have crippling consequences for their future development and undermine our efforts to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, the eradication of poverty.”

The study was jointly conducted by UNISDR and Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED).