The rise in natural calamities has had little impact on corpus that states are looking to spend as a measure of relief from natural disasters, according to a Moneycontrol analysis of data from states' budgets.
During 2024-25, states are set to spend just 0.13 percent of India's GDP on relief from natural calamities, compared with 0.24 percent spent a decade ago, and 0.19 percent allocated just before the pandemic. While the pandemic saw a rise in spend arising out of natural calamities at 0.3 percent of national GDP, this has declined in subsequent years. State spending on relief from natural calamities has declined not only as a percentage of GDP but also as a proportion of the total budgetary allocation.
In 2024-25, at 0.9 percent of the total budget, states' spending was nearly a third lower than the 1.4 percent spent in 2019-20, and half of the 1.8 percent spent a decade ago in 2015-16.
South Worsens, Northeast Improves
In terms of spending, data analysed by Moneycontrol indicated that South India witnessed a worsening of relief spending, while Northeast and Western India has witnessed an improvement over the last decade.
The five southern states spent 0.18 percent of GDP on relief on account of natural calamities in 2015-16, which declined to 0.14 percent prior to the pandemic, and further to 0.07 percent of GDP in 2023-24. The southern states spent 0.35 percent of GDP during the pandemic.
In contrast, Northeastern states, which spent a similar proportion of their GDP in 2015-16, increased their spending to 0.27 percent in 2022-23. N-E states, despite being less developed, also witnessed a jump in spending on relief from natural calamities from 0.15 percent to 0.29 percent in 2023-24.
Central states, such as Madhya Pradesh saw a decline on calamity-related spend from 0.65 percent a decade ago to 0.19 percent to 2023-24.
One reason for the decline could also be due to improvement in irrigation facilities in central India, which provide relief from disasters such as drought, or deficient rainfall.
The relief on account of natural calamities is paid out of the National Disaster Relief Fund and State Disaster Relief Funds.
India Climate Report released by Centre for Science and Environment said that over 3,200 people had died in 2024 owing to extreme weather events seen during 255 of 274 days in the first nine months of the year. In 2023, India recorded 235 days of extreme weather events out of 273 days, with 2,923 people dying that year.
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