New Delhi:The India Meteorological Department on Tuesday informed that more than 1,700 people lost their lives due to extreme weather conditions, like heavy rainfall, floods, landslide, thunderstorms and cold wave, in the year 2020.
In its report of Climate Research and Services, IMD said that Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were the most affected states as both had reportedly claimed more than 350 deaths mainly due to thunderstorm, lightning and cold wave events.
Heavy rainfall and flood-related incidents reportedly claimed over 800 lives from different parts of the country during pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons.
Of these, Assam lost 129 lives, 72 people died in Kerala, 61 in Telangana, 54 in Bihar, 50 in Maharashtra, 48 in Uttar Pradesh and 39 in Himachal Pradesh.
At least 815 lives were reportedly claimed due to thunderstorms and lightning. Among these, 280 were from Bihar, 220 from Uttar Pradesh, 122 from Jharkhand, 72 from Madhya Pradesh, 23 from Maharashtra and 20 from Andhra Pradesh.
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The Weather Department said that cold wave conditions which mainly prevailed over the central parts of the country, especially in the month of January, caused deaths of about 150 people. Out of this, Bihar lost 45 lives in a single day due to cold wave.
During the year 2020, 5 cyclones were also formed over the North Indian Ocean, including Amphan, Nivar, Gati, Nisarga and Burevi.
The most severe cyclonic storm Amphan was formed in the pre-monsoon session and crossed West Bengal coast over Sundarbans on May 20, claiming lives of 90 people and about 4,000 livestock in the state.
Cyclone Nisarga, which crossed Maharashtra coast on June 3, claimed 4 lives and 2000 livestock. Cyclone Nivar took 12 lives and 10836 livestock in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, while Burevi claimed 9 lives and 200 livestock in Tamil Nadu.
IMD also informed that the year 2020 was the eighth warmest year on record since nationwide records commenced in 1901. However, this is substantially lower than the highest warming observed over India during 2016 (+0.71℃).
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