India among most vulnerable to extreme weather events: Harsh Vardhan
Events due to extreme weather took the lives of 2,503 people in the country in 2019, Union Minister for Earth Sciences and Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
Of these, 996 persons died due to floods and heavy rains, with the highest toll being 306 in Bihar. In the following year, extreme weather events took a toll of 1740.
The reply in the Lok Sabha pointed out that India is one of the most vulnerable countries for extreme weather events, according to German watch Global Climate Risk Index (CRI), which is an analysis based on one of the most reliable data sets available on the impacts of extreme weather events and associated socio-economic data. The index calculated for any given year is based on the extreme weather events such as storms, floods and heatwaves occurred in that year. The ranking of India based on CRI since 2010. India was ranked 31 in 2010 and that rose to 3 in 2013, which meant that the vulnerability to extreme weather events. In 2019, India ranked seventh.
The Government of India has worked out collaborations with different countries and foreign government agencies, to work on various fields regarding extreme weather events.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for scientific and technical cooperation has been signed between Qatar Civil Aviation Authority and Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India.
Capacity building activities related to the seamless coordination of disaster management activities with an effective, efficient and with comprehensive plans of public understanding and preparedness, are targeted over the next two to three years.
An MOU for Technical Cooperation in Earth Observations and Earth Sciences between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA and MoES. Under this, there are five active implementation agreements and Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) is responsible for Tropical cyclone activity part.
India has been collaborating with World Meteorological organisation (WMO) has helped in technology transfer from Hydrologic Research Centre (HRC), USA to India for South Asia Flash Flood Guidance System commencing from monsoon season 2020 and will continue further.
It has also helped to issue impact based forecast and risk based warning during monsoonal flood situations like heavy rainfall over Mumbai, Heavy rainfall over Dwarka and Heavy rainfall over Bhopal.
Collaboration with Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) helped India to demonstrate as a Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre (RSMC) for tropical cyclone (one of the sixth centre in the World) in providing leadership in the region. The collaboration helped in exchange of meteorological data from Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea countries to IMD and hence improved monitoring and forecast.
India is also collaborating with WMO Severe Weather Forecast Demonstration Programme (SWFP). In the coming two or three years, this collaboration will support India to be recognised as a regional leader to provide severe weather guidance to the member countries India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri-Lanka and Maldives). In return, India has access to high resolution NWP model and location specific forecast products from European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), UK Met Office (UKMO), Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Korean Meteorological Agency (KMA), China Meteorological Administration (CMA). Also, satellite based nowcast (very short-range forecast of convective activity like thunderstorm rainfall) was made available for use in the region. This 5-day forecast will help in policy and planning.