Flooding occurs when an extreme volume of water is carried by rivers, creeks and many other geographical features into areas where the water cannot be drained adequately. Often during times of heavy rainfall, drainage systems in residential areas are not adequate, or unchecked civil development severely impedes the functionality of an otherwise acceptable drainage system. Floods cause extremely large numbers of fatalities in every country, but due to India's extremely high population density and often under-enforced development standards, a large amount of damages and many deaths which could be otherwise avoided, are allowed to happen. India witnesses flood due to excessive rain which then results in overflow of rivers, lakes and dams, which adds to cause large amounts of damage to people's lives and property. In the past, India has witnessed many of the largest, most catastrophic floods, causing irreparable damage to people's livelihood, property, and crucial infrastructure.
This is a list of notably recorded floods that have occurred in India.
Video Floods in India
Before 1999
- In October 1943, Madras (now Chennai) saw the worst flood to hit the city. Flood occurred due to excessive rains that lasted for 6 days and overflowed Coovum and the Adyar rivers. Damage caused to life and property was immense however estimate figure is unknown.
- On 11 August 1979, the Machchu-2 dam situated on the Machhu river burst, thus flooding the town of Morbi in the Rajkot district of Gujarat. Exact figure of loss of lives is unknown, but it is estimated between 1800 and 2500 people.
- In 1987, Bihar state of India witnessed one of its worst floods till then. Flood occurred due to overflow of the Koshi river; which claimed lives of 1,399 humans, 302 animals and public property worth INR INR68 billion (US$1.0 billion).
Maps Floods in India
Present
- Heavy rains across the state of Maharashtra, including large areas of the metropolis Mumbai which received 944 mm (39.1 inches) alone on 26 July 2005 killed at-least 1,094 people. The day is still remembered as the day Mumbai came to a standstill, as the city faced worst ever rain. Mumbai International Airport remained closed for 30 hours, Mumbai-Pune Expressway was closed for 24 hours with public property loss was estimated at INR550 crore (US$84 million).
- June 2015 Gujarat flood: Heavy rain in June 2015 resulted in widespread flood in Saurashtra region of Gujarat resulting in more than 70 deaths. The wild life of Gir Forest National Park and adjoining area was also affected.
- July 2015 Gujarat flood:Heavy rain in July 2015 resulted in widespread flood in north Gujarat resulting in more than 70 deaths.
- 2015 South Indian floods:Heavy rain in Nov-Dec 2015 resulted in flooding of Adyar, Cooum rivers in Chennai , Tamil Nadu resulting in financial loss and human lives.
- 2016 Assam floods: Heavy rains in July-August resulted in floods affecting 1.8 million people and flooding the Kaziranga National Park killing around 200 wild animals.
- 2017 Gujarat flood: Following heavy rain in July 2017, Gujarat state of India was affected by the severe flood resulting in more than 200 deaths.
- August 2017 Nepal and India floods
Role of climate change
Climate change has played an important role in causing large-scale floods across central India, including the Mumbai floods of 2005 and 2017. During 1901-2015, there has been a three-fold rise in widespread extreme rainfall events, across central and northern India - Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam and parts of Western Ghats - Goa, north Karnataka and South Kerala. The rising number of extreme rain events are attributed to an increase in the fluctuations of the monsoon westerly winds, due to increased warming in the Arabian Sea. This results in occasional surges of moisture transport from the Arabian Sea to the subcontinent, resulting in heavy rains lasting for 2-3 days, and spread over a region large enough to cause floods.
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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