Rain, snowfall, hailstorm, fog and cold wave during January this year caused a loss of rupees 1000 cr in the country. A report released by Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center at Aon Benfield revealed that 329 people died due to cold wave in India, Bangladesh and Nepal collectively during the winter weather in January.
The Global Catastrophe Recap report also cites weather events in other parts of the world that caused damage/loss to life and property. China was hit by three such weather and natural disaster events including an earthquake, severe cold conditions and drought that caused $732 million-plus loss during the months of January and February
The US was affected by four separate powerful winter storms during February. While the damage was widespread, economic losses across the affected US states were within the expected range for events of this magnitude, and in some cases, insured losses were actually lower than might have been expected.
The report further states that floods were prevalent across portions of South America, Asia and Europe during January. Peru and Bolivia where seasonal rains killed at least 54 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 22,000 homes, were among the hardest-hit.
Photograph by Biswarup Ganguly
