More than 2 million animals have died in Mongolia due to extreme cold.
The country’s agriculture ministry said 2.1 million livestock have died as a result of starvation and exhaustion, according to official figures of 64.7 million such animals in Mongolia, including sheep, goats, horses and cows.
According to the report of the foreign news agency ‘AFP’, it is not surprising that the landlocked country experiences severe cold weather between December and March, where the mercury drops to minus 50 degrees Celsius in some areas.
However, this winter has been colder than normal, with heavy snowfall and below-normal temperatures recorded, the United Nations said in its report.
This severe season is known as dzud and usually results in the death of large numbers of livestock.
According to the United Nations, its severity is increasing as a result of climate change.
Mongolia has experienced six droughts in the past decade, including the winter of 2022-23, when 4.4 million livestock were killed.
This year, the effects of dzod were exacerbated by the summer drought, which resulted in the animals not being able to store fat to survive the harsh winter.
The herdsman Bambia said the winter started with heavy snowfall but suddenly the temperature rose and the snow melted, after which the mercury dropped again and the snow started to form again.
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