Agrarian India showing growing resilience to nature's whims: Report

By Prabodh Krishna

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The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED, 2004) has labelled India one of the ten most disaster-prone countries of the world. In terms of overall Global Climate Risk (CRI) index, India has ranked fourth with a CRI score of 15.44, ranking 60 in terms of losses per unit in GDP.

The Global Climate Risk Index, 2017 ranks India second in a fatality-wise score, which is an improvement because India topped the list in 2013. Between 1996 and 2000, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) took a two per cent knock and state and central government revenues dwindled by 12 per cent because of damages caused to life, infrastructure and agricultural produce by natural calamities.

Of India’s geographical area of 329 million hectares, as much as 40 million hectares is flood-prone. In 2014-15, floods ravaged the northeastern states, even as the rest of the country experienced two consecutive dry spells. On an average, floods have damaged 7.2 million hectares of land, including farm lands every year between 1953 and 2011.

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