Bihar, UP most vulnerable during cold waves
- The two states account for a majority of deaths from cold waves every winter, finds a study
{{^adFree}}
Winter in India brings with itself several unfortunate deaths due to ‘cold waves’. A cold wave refers to temperatures that are 5 degrees Celsius or more below the usual minimum for a place. A study covering 37 years shows that Bihar and Uttar Pradesh account for three-fourths of all people dying from cold waves.
{{^adFree}}
Geographers Preeti Malik, Pankaj Bhardwaj and Omvir Singh from Kurukshetra University spot these trends using data on disastrous weather events from the India Meteorological Department for 1978-2014.
They find there were around 600 cold wave events over this period, which killed an average of 230 people a year. In absolute numbers, most people died in Bihar, at an average of 100 a year, followed by Uttar Pradesh, at 72 deaths a year.
{{^adFree}}
Taking population size into account, Bihar performs the worst with 1.3 deaths per million people per year. Chandigarh was next, with 1.1 deaths per million people per year. The national average was 0.25 deaths per million people per year.
Uttar Pradesh had the most cold wave events (95) over the 37-year period, followed by Rajasthan (89).
Factoring in the area of states and Union territories, Chandigarh turns out to have the highest density of cold wave events—184 of them per thousand square kilometres. Delhi is next, with seven events per thousand square kilometres. The density figure for India as a whole over 37 years is 0.19 events per thousand square kilometres.
{{^adFree}}
The high rate of cold wave events in northern India is down to intrusions of cold air from regions further north. These mostly happen in December and January.
The authors also find most of those dying from cold waves are men, which is down to their being employed in greater numbers in outdoor work such as agricultural or construction labour.
Also read: “Distribution of cold wave mortalities over India: 1978–2014"
{{^adFree}}
Snap Fact features new and interesting reads from the world of research.
Instant Approval
Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.