Natural Disasters and Hazards in India

Natural disasters can significantly impact a country’s socio-economic development, often leading to a humanitarian crisis.

India is particularly sensitive to natural hazards due to high population density and rapid economic growth in coastal areas.

Natural hazards present a broad array of challenges for the country, from direct impacts on local communities, through loss of life and livelihoods, to indirect impact on national macro-economic growth.

Droughts, flash floods, cyclones, avalanches, landslides brought by torrential rains, and snowstorms pose the greatest threats.

A natural disaster might be caused by earthquakes, flooding, volcanic eruption, landslides, hurricanes etc. In order to be classified as a disaster, it will need to have a profound environmental effect and/or human loss and frequently incurs a financial loss.

Other dangers include frequent summer dust storms, which usually track from north to south; they cause extensive property damage in North India and deposit large amounts of dust and dirt from arid regions. Hail is also common in parts of India, causing severe damage to standing crops such as rice and wheat and many more crops.