Man-made, natural disasters weigh heavy on Himachal

SHIMLA: In the last eight years, more than 13,000 people have lost their lives in natural and human-induced disasters, with state’s biggest district — Kangra — accounting for highest number of causalities.

By using data accumulated over eight years, the study by Economic and Statistics Department — Disaster Analysis and Management found out that disasters like floods, landslides, road accidents and other hazards not only caused loss to life in the state, but also to crop and properties.

The state is highly prone to natural disasters like earthquake, landslides, flooding, avalanches and road accidents.

Over the last eight years, 13,597 people have lost their lives in different disasters that struck the state.

Kangra district was the biggest hit, followed by Shimla, Chamba, Kinnaur, Kullu, Una, Lahaul and Spiti being highly susceptible to hazards. The districts Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Solan and Sirmaur fall in moderate vulnerable category. The government study shows that in 2008 and 2009 more than 200 people died in various disasters. As many as 9,527 persons were injured in different hazards between 2007 and 2015. Besides, 10,808 persons sustained grievous injuries during the disasters that struck the state.

The disasters are also weighing heavy on the state government as it has to pay large amount of money on relief and rehabilitation.

The government paid `176.93 crore ex-gratia to the kin of the victims who lost their life due to disasters.