Deaths due to forces of nature like floods, sun/heat stroke, lightning strikes and avalanches increased by 18.2 % from 2018 to 2019, according to the recently published report on Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) by the National Crime Records Bureau.
The report ADSI 2019 pointed out that while they claimed 6,891 persons in 2018, the number increased to 8,145 in 2019.
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“Of the 8,145 accidental deaths due to forces of nature, 35.3% were due to ‘lightning (2,876), 15.6% due to heat/sun stroke’ (1,274), 11.6% due to floods (948) and 9.8% due to exposure to cold (796 during 2019. Landslide and cyclones caused 3.2% (264) and 0.4% (33) of the deaths respectively.”
Deaths due to floods almost doubled from 500 in 2018 to 948 in 2019. In the case of sun/heat stroke, the number of deaths increased from 890 in 2018 to 1274 in 2019. Deaths due to lightning increased from 2,357 in 2018 to 2,876 in 2019. Deaths due to exposure to cold in 2018 were 757 which increased to 796 in 2019. Only in the case of landslips the number decreased from 404 in 2018 to 264 in 2019.
Bihar reported 1,521, highest in this category, followed by Odisha 1,466. The two accounted for 36.6% of the deaths. Uttar Pradesh, the most populated State, recorded 792 deaths, Madhya Pradesh 627, Jharkhand 556 and Maharshtra 573. Almost all them recorded an increase in 2019 compared to 2018.
Different forces of nature had different impacts in terms of deaths in different regions.
Lightning was the reason for 400 deaths each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, 334 in Jharkhand and 321 in Uttar Pradesh. It was the dominant factor even in other States and caused 83.5% of deaths in Chhattisgarh (212 of 254), 81.4% in Tamil Nadu (57 of 70) and 66.7% in Goa (2 of 3) respectively. Similarly, heat/sun stroke caused 61.9% (156 of 252) in Telangana. While 58.8% (141 of 240) deaths in Punjab were due to exposure to cold, 73.5% (100 of 136) in Assam was due to flood.
Majority of victims male aged 30 to 45 years
A profile of the age of the victims reveals that the majority (50.3%) of the victims were reported to be belonging to the age-group of 30-45 years (25.3%) and 45-60 years (24.9%). A gender-wise analysis pointed out that 6,301 (77.2%) of the 8,154 victims were male and 1,833 (22.4 %) were female. Lighting strikes were the reason for maximum deaths among women. The mega cities contributed to only 418 (5.1%) out of 8,145 deaths due to causes attributable to forces of nature.
