ULAN BATOR, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The number of livestock killed by this winter's extreme cold weather has risen to 3,925,734 in Mongolia, the State Emergency Commission (SEC) said Monday.

Among the country's 21 provinces, eastern Sukhbaatar has been the most affected by the severe cold called "dzud," with over 1.1 million livestock deaths, the SEC said in a statement.

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 by snow.

Mongolia has seen much more snow than usual this winter, with around 80 percent of its territory covered by snow so far, said its weather monitoring agency.

Mongolia, one of the last surviving nomadic countries in the world, has elevated its disaster preparedness to high alert due to the harsh winter and big livestock loss.

The promotion of livestock husbandry is seen as the most viable way to diversify the landlocked country's mining-dependent economy.

At the end of 2023, the number of livestock in Mongolia stood at 64.7 million, according to the National Statistics Office. Enditem

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