Gujarat is among 20 states / UTs that slashed budget for natural calamities in 2022-23
Gujarat, which is forecast to be hit by Very Severe Cyclone Biparjoy on June 15, 2023, had reduced its budget for natural calamities by 71 per cent in 2022-23 over 2021-22, according to the State of India’s Environment In Figures, 2023 (SoE in Figures, 2023).
In 2022-23, the state had allocated Rs 7,689.7 crore to deal with natural calamities. This was a reduction from Rs 2,633 crore in 2021-22.
The western state, which is particularly at risk of cyclones, ranks second, after Tamil Nadu, which cut its expenditures on account of natural calamities by 100 per cent in 2022-23.
These two states are amongst the 20 states / Union territories that have reduced their budget for natural disasters in 2022-23.
As a result, the cumulative budget allocations by states / UTs for natural calamities has seen a 36 per cent reduction in 2022-23 over 2021-22, according to SoE in Figures, 2023 published by Down to Earth and the Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
Between 2017-18 and 2018-19 too, Gujarat had slashed its expenditure on natural calamities by a little over 34 per cent, revealed the Envi-Stats, 2023 published by the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
But since then, there has been a consistent increase for two consecutive years — 2019-20 and 2020-21.
So, since 2017-18, or in six years, Gujarat reduced its allocation for natural calamities for the second time.
The reduction in budget to deal with natural calamities between 2021-22 and 2022-23 has also been the highest (71 per cent) as compared to 34 per cent reduction between 2017-18 and 2018-19, the analysis showed.
In 2022-23, nine states slashed their budget on account of natural calamities by 25 to 70 per cent, according to the DTE-CSE publication.
These include two flood-prone states, Bihar and Assam. In 2022, Assam had faced the most devastating floods in over a decade that killed over 300 people and affected over 200,000 hectares of cropped land, showed the interactive atlas on weather disasters, an initiative by the CSE-DTE data centre.
The same year, the northeastern state reduced its budget to cope with natural calamities by 25 per cent.
In the six years since 2017-18, Assam decreased its allocation for natural calamities for the first time, the findings in Envi-Stats, 2023 showed.
Assam, in its budget for 2022-23, had allocated Rs 1,916 crore to deal with natural calamities. This was a 25 per cent reduction over Rs 2,557.5 crore allocated for 2021-22.
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Mandvi beach in Kutch, near which Cyclone Biporjoy is expected to make landfall June 15, 2023. Photo: iStock.png)
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