Floods in India

This is a list of notable recorded floods that have occurred in India.

In the 20th century
  • 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. the flood left thousands of people homeless.[1]
  • On 11 August 1979, the Machchu-2 dam situated on the Machchhu River burst, thus flooding the town of Morbi in the Rajkot district of Gujarat.[2] Exact figure of loss of lives is unknown, but it is estimated between 1800 and 2500 people.[3][4][5]
  • 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 ₹68 billion (US$950 million).
  • In 1988, Pubjab experienced its first flood when all the rivers in Punjab overflowed.
  • In July 1993, flash floods killed 530 people across the seven to eight states of India.

In the 21st century
  • Heavy rains across the state of Maharashtra, including large areas of the metropolis Mumbai which received 567 (tmkoc 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 ₹550 crore (US$77 million).
  • June 2013 North Indian floods: Heavy rain due to a burst of a cloud caused severe floods and landslides on the North Indian states, mainly Uttarakhand and nearby states. More than 5,700 people were presumed dead.[6]
  • 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.[7][8]
  • July 2015 Gujarat flood:Heavy rain in July 2015 resulted in widespread flood in north Gujarat resulting in more than 70 deaths.[9]
  • 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.[10]
  • 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.[11]
  • 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.[12]
  • August 2018 Kerala Flood: Following high rain in late August 2018 and heavy Monsoon rainfall from August 8, 2018, severe flooding affected the Indian state of Kerala resulting over 445 deaths.
  • August 2019 Indian floods: Following high rain in late July and early August 2019, series of floods that affected over nine states in India. The states of Kerala (Main article: 2019 Kerala floods), Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat were the most severely affected.
  • Brahmaputra floods
  • 2020 Assam floods

Climate change

Climate change has played an important role in causing large-scale floods across central India, including the Mumbai floods of 2006 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.[13] 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.[13][14]

References
  1. Frederick, Prince (22 November 2011). "Memories of Madras: Story of a submerged city". The Hindu. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  2. Noorani, A. G. (25 August 1979). "The Inundation of Morvi". Economic and Political Weekly. 14 (34): 1454. JSTOR 4367866.
  3. Noorani, A. G. (21 April 1984). "Dissolving Commissions of Inquiry". Economic and Political Weekly. 19 (16): 667–668. JSTOR 4373178.
  4. World Bank. Environment Dept (1991). Environmental assessment sourcebook. World Bank Publications. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-8213-1845-4. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
  5. S.B. Easwaran (27 August 2012). "The Loudest Crash Of '79". Outlook India. Archived from the original on 24 December 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  6. "India raises flood death toll reaches 5,700 as all missing persons now presumed dead". CBS News. July 16, 2013. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  7. Sonawane, Vishakha (26 June 2015). "Heavy Rains In India: 70 Dead in Gujarat, Flood Alert In Jammu And Kashmir". International Business Times. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  8. "5 Lions Found Dead in Gujarat After Heavy Rain Leads to Flooding". NDTV. 26 June 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  9. "Gujarat floods: 72 people dead, over 81,000 cattle perished due to heavy rains". Firstpost. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  10. Jayesh Phadtare (2018). "Role of Eastern Ghats Orography and Cold Pool in an Extreme Rainfall Event over Chennai on 1 December 2015". Monthly Weather Review. 146 (4): 943–965. doi:10.1175/MWR-D-16-0473.1.
  11. Doshi, Vidhi (27 July 2016). "Flooding in India affects 1.6m people and submerges national park". Guardian. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  12. "PM rushes to Gujarat, announces relief package of Rs 500 crore". The Times of India. Retrieved 2017-07-26.
  13. Roxy, M. K.; Ghosh, Subimal; Pathak, Amey; Athulya, R.; Mujumdar, Milind; Murtugudde, Raghu; Terray, Pascal; Rajeevan, M. (2017-10-03). "A threefold rise in widespread extreme rain events over central India". Nature Communications. 8 (1): 708. doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00744-9. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 5626780. PMID 28974680.
  14. Simpkins, Graham (2017). "Hydroclimate: Extreme rain in India". Nature Climate Change. 7 (11): 760. doi:10.1038/nclimate3429.
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