World's Riskiest Cities: Kolkata Comes 7th


BANGALORE:  Today, the urban populations outnumbered rural populations at an extreme rate. And as such the potential for natural disasters to devastate communities has been very high. Therefore, Earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis and flooding have catastrophic consequences if they hit at the wrong place and at the wrong time. But which cities in the world are most at risk?

Swiss Re, a leading global reinsurance giant recently published a report entitled ‘Mind the Risk: A global ranking of cities under threat from natural disaster’ to analyzed the disaster potential for 616 of the world's largest cities.

The study took into account how likely serious natural disaster were in each location, the size of the population that could be affected, and the potential effect of a natural disaster on the local and national economy in each place and also looks back at some of the worst disasters they have faced in the past.

Read on to find out the 7 riskiest places on earth highly susceptible to climate catastrophic.

7.  Kolkata, India:

The densely populated eastern metropolis of India, Kolkata has been ranked seventh in a global assessment of natural disaster risk.

Situated near Sunderbans, the world's largest delta, this city is susceptible to flooding every year during the June-September rainy season.

The 140-year-old drainage system in the former capital of British India is among the oldest in the country and covers less than 50 percent of the city.

With the Bay of Bengal a mere 180km away, Kolkata is vulnerable to widespread destruction from storms hitting the coast.

On top of this, the report points out that Kolkata’s civic infrastructure are not enough to counter a devastating natural disaster.

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