India remains the fastest growing economy in the world, a poll by Reuters said recently. The finding also found mention in Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s latest blog, where he lauded the ‘phenomenal 7.7 per cent growth rate.’ All this may be good news for Narendra Modi-led BJP government, but there’s something that’s slowly eroding the Indian economy and it has nothing to do with the government’s policies.
Call it a troubles from the sky or Mother Nature’s revenge, the dust storms that have stuck north India in recent past are costing India. According to a latest Blooomberg report, the extreme weather is costing India massive $80 billion every year.
In terms of plain numbers, the thunder storms have killed more than 500 people in 2018 itself. This is a sharp rise from the period between 1980 and 2003, where only nine deaths were reported. Apart from the human tragedy, there’s an economic cost also. From destruction of houses, power lines snapped to flights cancelled, the dust storms are proving to be a very, very costly.
“It’s definitely a new normal — the frequency and intensity of these storms is unprecedented,” said Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
Combined with this, the toxic haze over the large part of north India means that there are more people not reporting for work resulting in loss of several man-hours.
Just a week ago, the weather department had issued a severe thunder storm warning in the National Capital region.
On June 9, another massive dust storm hit Delhi. The effect was such that dark clouds had covered the skyline of Delhi. The storm was immediately followed by rain, which resulted in power outage in many areas.
Due to the rain and storm, at least 27 flights were diverted between 5 pm and 6 pm in Delhi. However, operations were restored to normal at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
In Uttar Pradesh, as many as five people were killed in separate incidents last week. Lightning also killed two people in Odisha's Kendrapara district.
