Dec 19, 2020. Over 4.5 crore people will be forced to migrate from their homes in India by 2050 due to climate disasters including floods, droughts, and cyclones, three times more than the present figures, according to a new report.

In 2020, the number of people displaced in India is 1.4 crore, it said.

Quoting figures, the report claimed that 4.5 crore from India will be forced to migrate from their homes by 2050 due to climate disasters.

“Political failure to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius as per the Paris agreement goal is already driving 18 million climate migrants from their homes in 2020,” the report said.

‘Over 6 crore will be homeless’

The report ‘Costs of climate inaction: displacement and distress migration’ assessed climate-fuelled displacement and migration across five South Asian countries — Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka — and calculates a devastating likelihood of over 6 crore people being homeless and displaced by 2050 in South Asia alone.

It is based on a study conducted by International agencies ActionAid International and Climate Action Network South Asia.

The report released on Friday, estimates that climate migration will treble in South Asia alone, a region badly affected by climate disasters, including floods, droughts, typhoons and cyclones.

The research was undertaken by Bryan Jones, one of the authors of the inaugural Groundswell Report on internal climate migration in 2018.

South Asia vulnerable

Sanjay Vashist, Director, Climate Action Network South Asia said, “South Asia is geographically vulnerable to climate disasters and is regularly lashed with floods and cyclones, but poverty and environmental injustice are also determining factors in this climate migration crisis.

“South Asian leaders must join forces and prepare plans for the protection of displaced people. They must step up and invest in universal and effective social protection measures, resilience plans and green infrastructure to respond to the climate crisis and help those who have been forced to move,” he said.