'Disasters increasing in Bihar due to Climate Change'

Patna: States like Bihar are the worst victims of climate change as it frequently faces floods and drought affecting development, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said here on Tuesday.

Bihar faced major floods in the year 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2017 causing loss of life and property, damage to crops, roads and other infrastructure, Modi said. For this year's flood, 514 people died and the state government paid Rs 1788 crore as ex-gratia to 30 lakh affected families, he said at a symposium on climate change.

"This is the magnitude of the damage caused by floods in one year alone.... The frequency of natural disasters has been rising due to climate change," Modi said.

A very huge amount of money is spent to deal with disaster related incidents, he said adding that the state government has made a provision of Rs 68,000 crore in 2016-17 for its 10 departments to deal with natural disasters.

The deputy chief minister said it would be difficult to combat the issue of climate change until and unless every individual of the country moderate his/her life-style.