Floods in India

This is a list of notable recorded floods that have occurred in India. Floods are the most common natural disaster in India. The heaviest southwest the Brahmaputra and other rivers to distend their banks, often flooding surrounding areas.[citation needed]

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.
  • 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. Exact figure of loss of lives is unknown, but it is estimated between 1800 to 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 68 billion (US$850 million).
  • In 1988, Punjab 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

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. 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.

See also


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