New Delhi: The sweltering heat in India has killed more than 17,000 people in 50 years. There have been 706 heatwave incidents between 1971 and 2019. This information has been received from the research paper published by the top meteorologists of the country. The paper was written by M Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, by Scientist Kamaljit Ray, Scientist SS Ray, Scientist RK Giri, and Scientist AP Deemri earlier this year. The main author of this paper is Kamaljit Ray.
Heatwave is one of the extreme adverse weather events (EWE). According to the study, EWE has killed 1,41,308 people in 50 years (1971-2019). Of these, 17,362 people have died due to heatwaves, which is slightly more than 12 percent of the total recorded death toll. It said that most of the deaths due to heatwaves occurred in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Odisha. Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana are among the states where the cases of the severe heatwave are highest. come to the fore.
The study assumes significance because of the extreme heat that has hit the northern hemisphere in recent weeks. Earlier this week, many people died due to severe heat in Canada and America. In the Canadian city of Vancouver, the mercury exceeded 49 degrees Celsius, breaking all records. The northern plains and mountains of India have also experienced severe heat and heat. In the plains, the mercury has reached more than 40 degrees at the beginning of this week. A heatwave is declared in an area when the temperature exceeds 40 °C in the plains and more than 30 °C in the mountainous areas.