ULAN BATOR, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The number of livestock deaths caused by the extreme wintry weather known as "dzud" has risen to 6.3 million so far this winter in Mongolia, the country's State Emergency Commission (SEC) said Wednesday.
The figure accounted for 9.6 percent of the country's total livestock population counted at the end of 2023, the SEC said in a statement.
Among the country's 21 provinces, eastern Sukhbaatar has been the most affected by the dzud, with over 1.5 million livestock deaths, the commission said.
"Dzud" is a Mongolian term to describe a severely cold winter when a large number of livestock die because the ground is frozen or covered in snow.
Last winter, Mongolia saw record snowfall, the largest since 1975, and around 90 percent of its territory had been covered with snow up to 100 centimeters thick.
Over 5 percent of the Mongolian territory is still covered with snow, according to the country's weather monitoring agency. ■
