2016-20: Heatstroke cause of 13.6% forces-of-nature deaths
Heatstroke-related deaths lowest in 2020
On Monday, Maharashtra’s health department said the state had recorded over 374 cases of heatstroke in March and April. And that it had registered 25 deaths due to heatstroke — the highest in six years.
While a country-wise analysis is not available for the last two years, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s annual Envistats release shows that between 2016 and 2020, heatstroke accounted for 13.6 per cent of total deaths due to forces of nature. Of the 38,070 lives lost due to forces of nature, heatstroke accounted for 5,159 deaths.
While 2020 accounted for the lowest number of heatstroke-related deaths, given that temperatures in March and April 2022 were at 122-year highs, this year may break previous records.
Analysis shows that 10 of the 20 states and Union Territories for which data was available recorded the highest average number of heatwave days in the last decade.
The India Meteorological Department defines heatwave as a condition when the “maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40 degree Celsius or more for plains and at least 30 degree celsius or more for hilly regions”. The analysis is based on two criteria: If there is at least a 4.5 degree Celsius departure from normal or if actual temperatures go above 45 degrees. For IMD to classify an event as a heatwave, the criteria needs to be satisfied for two consecutive days in at least two stations in a meteorological sub-division.
Among them, the central and western parts of India were worst affected. Madhya Pradesh recorded four or five heatwave days per year between 1970 and 2009. In the last 12 years, the average number of heatwave days increased to seven.
In Maharashtra, the number of heatwave days went up from four or five to six. In the last 12 years, Rajasthan recorded an average of 12 heatwave days, compared to nine between 2000 and 2009, and 10 during 1990-99.
For Uttarakhand, the average number of heatwave days went up from four during 200009 to nine during 2010-21.
Between 2015 and 19, deaths due to heatwave events increased 1.5-times compared to two decades ago. While India reported 2,284 deaths due to heatwave during 1995-99, between 201519, the country registered 3,504 deaths. In 2015 alone, India recorded 2,081 deaths due to heatwave.
Government initiatives on heat health warning systems and action plans have helped reduce mortality. The last two years are a case in point, when India recorded 27 deaths due to heatwave. The country needs to develop better initiatives as temperatures rise and the intensity of such events increases.
According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the probability of hot temperature events would increase 4.1 times if temperatures were to rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius.