Looming catastrophe: climate change to claim 1.3 lakh lives in India in 2050

Climate change is causing chaos in the environment worldwide. That's not something we haven't heard a billion times.

But do we have any idea as to what its impact is and will be in India when it comes to a rising body count? A latest study, published in medical journal Lancet, carried out be University of Oxford, hints at what is coming.

Here are snapshots:

• Number of people who could die due to climate change in India in 2050.
• The reason: fluctuations in diet and bodyweight due to fall in crop productivity.

• Number of global deaths due for similar reasons in 2050.
• That means that 1 in 4 global deaths due to climate change will occur in India.

• Number of deaths that could be prevented if there is adequate food productivity.
• "Changes in food availability and intake affect dietary and weight-related risk factors such as low fruit and vegetable intake, high red meat consumption and high bodyweight. These all increase the incidence of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke and cancer, as well as death from those diseases," said Marco Springmann, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Population Health, University of Oxford.

• The projected reduction in vegetable intake average per person by 2050.
• Vegetable intake will see the highest reduction, followed by fruit intake (3.2%) and red meat consumption (0.7%).

• Greece and Italy, the two countries which will be the worst affected due to climate change on a per capita basis thanks to fall in food productivity.
• In absolute numbers, China and India will fare the worst.

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