The natural disasters directly
impact economies, agriculture,
food security, water, sanitation,
the environment and health each
year. Therefore it is one of the
single largest concerns for most of
the developing nations. Different
natural hazards because varying
levels of physical damage to
infrastructure and agriculture with
implications for their indirect
and secondary impacts. Drought
causes heavy Crop and Livestock
losses over wide areas of land
but typically leave infrastructure
and productive capacity largely
unaffected. Floods and Cyclones
cause extensive whereas damage to
both infrastructure and agriculture,
depending on their timing relative
to the agricultural cycle. While
earthquakes have little impact on
standing crops excluding localized
losses but can cause wide spread
devastation of infrastructure and
other productive capacity over
relatively large areas.
The precise cost of the disaster
in terms of loss of lives, property,
loss of development opportunities,
etc. cannot be clearly assessed,
counted or scaled. The costs of
disaster are clearly inequitable,
falling heavily only on the few.
Disasters result not only in loss of
shelter but also create hardships,
lack of food availability, temporary
loss of livelihood and disrupt
socio-economic activities. Some
of the losses may be redeemable
and compensated for through
disaster relief and insurance.
However, apart from economic
dimension, such disturbances have
their psychological and social
dimensions as well, which need to
be studied, and documented besides
developing appropriate mitigation
strategies.
India’s Vulnerability
India is a country highly
vulnerable to natural disasters.
YOJANA March 2012
Table-1: People affected, lives lost and economic damage due to
Disasters in India during 1980 to 2010.
Year
Type of
Disasters
Flood
Drought
Flood
Epidemic
Drought
Epidemic
Storm
Flood
Earthquake
Flood
Flood
Storm
Storm
Extreme Temp
Flood
Storm
Drought
Earthquake
Drought
Flood
Flood
Earthquake
Flood
Flood
Flood
Flood
1980
1982
1984
1987
1988
1990
1993
1994
1995
1996
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2004
2005
2006
2009
People
affected
30,000,023
100,000,000
33,500,000
Life lost
Economic damage
(USD x 1,000)
3290
300,000,000
3000
2,200,000
7,000,000
128,000,000
9,748
2001
32,704,000
1,500,300
2871
2541
1811
9,843
2,500,000
20,005
2,263,000
50,000,000
300,000,000
42,000,000
33,000,000
2,500,000
16,389
3,330,000
2,300,000
3,390,000
2,150,000
Source: “EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database
Table-2: Year-wise damage caused due to floods, cyclonic
storms, landslides, etc. during last ten years in India
Year
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
Live Lost Cattle Lost
(in No.)
human (in
No.)
834
21,269
898
3,729
1,992
25,393
1,995
12,389
2,698
1,10,997
2,402
4,55,619
3,764
1,19,218
3,405
53,833
1,677
1,28,452
2,310
48,778
Houses
damaged
(in No.)
3,46,878
4,62,700
6,82,209
16,03,300
21,20,012
19,34,680
35,27,041
16,46,905
13,59,72