{"id":251782,"date":"2023-07-12T20:50:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T15:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=251782"},"modified":"2023-08-31T12:54:31","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T07:24:31","slug":"floods-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/floods-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Floods in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cExpress view on monsoon-battered India: Weathering it out\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d <\/strong>and \u201cFury of floods\u201d <\/strong>published in the \u201cBusiness Standard\u201d <\/strong>on 12th July 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Disaster management<\/p>\n

News- <\/strong>The article explains the issue of increasing flooding events in India in recent years.<\/p>\n

How rainfall patterns during the monsoon season have shown a distinct change in recent years?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Most parts of the country have witnessed intense bursts of rain, with relatively dry spells. <\/strong><\/p>\n

After the Uttarakhand disaster of 2013, India is experiencing at least one intense rainfall event <\/strong>that has resulted in large-scale flooding. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Examples are floods in Chennai in 2015, Kerala in 2018, Bihar in 2019, Bengaluru last year, Assam almost every year.<\/p>\n

What are some facts about flood vulnerable areas in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As per National Flood Commission in its 1980 report,<\/strong> the country’s overall flood-prone area <\/strong>is 40 million hectares, or 12 percent of the total geographical area<\/strong>. It has since expanded to over 50 million hectares. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Flash floods<\/strong> are now common in places that were earlier not considered flood-prone earlier<\/strong>. The arid zones in Rajasthan and parts of Gujarat<\/strong> are typical examples.<\/p>\n

The \u201cflood vulnerability index\u201d of the National Disaster Management Authority<\/strong> has identified Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Assam, Gujarat and Odisha as the states most susceptible to floods.<\/p>\n

As per the National Remote Sensing Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation<\/strong>, there exist several new stretches in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal that are prone to flooding<\/strong> after heavy rain.<\/p>\n

The hilly states in Himalayan range are susceptible to floods<\/strong> due to landslides, subsidence, and re-routing of the natural course of rivers and water channels.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What are the reasons behind the increase in flooding events?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As India\u2019s cities expanded, there was encroachment of natural water sinks<\/strong> such as wetlands, marshes and lakes.<\/p>\n

In most of the country, storm water drains<\/strong> that were planned decades ago are still locked in networks<\/strong>. Inadequate municipal administration<\/strong> worsens the situation and drains are almost always blocked. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This means that too much rainwater gets trapped within a city\u2019s borders<\/strong>. For example, the storm water drains in Delhi<\/strong> can\u2019t handle the 153 mm of rain that Delhi received over the past weekend.<\/p>\n

There is a lack of pre-emptive move<\/strong>s to mitigate the floods. Flood control by multipurpose irrigation-cum-hydro-power projects<\/strong> and other water management programmes in the past is not in practice. No new projects were started in the recent past.<\/p>\n

Existing dams have become bane <\/strong>due to unregulated and uncoordinated water releases<\/strong> from these structures. It leads to flooding in many areas in central and peninsular India. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Deforestation and global warming<\/strong> have led to cloudbursts, cyclones, and have aggravated the flood risk. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Soil erosion<\/strong> lowers its capacity to soak rainwater<\/strong>. Besides, there is denudation of vegetative cover <\/strong>in river catchments. It has increased the load of sediments<\/strong> in riverbeds and reduced their water-carrying capacity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is encroachment of natural floodplains <\/strong>of rivers. It has lowered their ability to act as natural buffers against floods. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Unplanned expansion of habitation, and indiscriminate disposal of garbage<\/strong> and other urban waste is also responsible for flooding.<\/p>\n

What is the way forward for flood management?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Relief efforts<\/strong> need to be stepped up. There is a need for a proactive policy against climate vagaries. <\/strong><\/p>\n

There are requirements for different strategies for urban floods.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a need for a holistic approach<\/strong> to address the menace of recurring floods. The government can set up an experts\u2019 panel to prepare a national flood control plan.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cExpress view on monsoon-battered India: Weathering it out\u201d published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d and \u201cFury of floods\u201d published in the \u201cBusiness Standard\u201d on 12th July 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Disaster management News- The article explains the issue of increasing flooding events in India in recent years. How rainfall… Continue reading Floods in India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10503,411,216],"class_list":["post-251782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-business-standard","tag-disaster-management","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":46,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698471914},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}