Datanomics: Natural disasters kill at least 1,000 people annually

More than 1,000 people die every year due to natural disasters in the country

Disturbing visuals of a flash flood sweeping away homes and hotels in Uttarkashi’s Dharali village have sent shockwaves across the country. At least 60 people were reported missing in that hilly region of Uttarakhand.

 

Rains have wreaked havoc in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh too where at least 190 people have lost their lives. Plains are also inundated. Parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were reeling under flood. Natural disasters claim at least 1,000 lives in India every year.  However, flood is not the foremost cause of deaths among these disasters. For instance, lightning killed maximum people in 2022. 

  The death toll due to natural disasters peaked at more than 3,000 during 2024-25 in the last eleven years. Similarly, thousands of cattle were killed, houses were damaged and millions of cropped areas were affected by these natural events every year. 

Natural disasters wreak havoc over vast areas of the country every year. In 2024-25, hilly Himachal Pradesh to southern state of Kerala to central state of Madhya Pradesh and western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra were the five states witnessing the highest number of deaths caused by these natural disturbances. 

 

 

Lightning among natural disasters was the biggest cause of human deaths in 2022, followed by heat stroke and exposure to cold. Floods were the fourth biggest cause of killing people that year. Gone are the days when people used to die due to starvation, which has also been categorised as a natural disaster.