Flood panel, on whose watch India’s flood-prone areas had been demarcated, was shaped in 1980
Latest occurrences of heavy rainfall resulting in flooding throughout India have proven that flood-prone areas within the nation transcend these talked about within the central monitoring map.
Areas prone to floods, in response to the Nationwide Catastrophe Administration Authority (NDMA), lie principally alongside the Ganga-Brahmaputra river basin, from the northern states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, overlaying Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and stretching to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh within the northeast.
The coastal states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, elements of Telangana and Gujarat additionally witness yearly floods, NDMA noticed.
Flood-prone areas in response to NDMA
This demarcation, nonetheless, is predicated on estimates made in 1980 by Rashtriya Barh Ayog (RBA) or Nationwide Flood Committee shaped four-decades in the past. Round 40 million hectares of geographical space in India is weak to floods, in response to the physique.
RBA additionally ascribed the floods to purely anthropogenic elements and never heavy downpours.
However over the past 4 a long time, India has been reeling from the consequences of local weather change like many elements of the world. The worldwide rise in temperatures has led to giant durations of no rain adopted by excessive precipitation, an statement which is turning into a development.
A living proof is the southwest monsoon interval in India from June to September throughout which the nation receives the majority of its rainfall. The rains carry aid from scorching warmth to thousands and thousands within the nation however have additionally been inflicting massing floods in elements of the nation in recent times.
In 2020, 256 districts throughout 13 states in India reported floods as a consequence of extra rainfall.
Maharashtra is likely one of the states that falls straight within the southwest monsoon’s northern sojourn. The western state acquired 11 per cent of extra rainfall until July 14, in response to an evaluation carried out by Down To Earth primarily based on Indian Meteorological Division’s rainfall knowledge.
Over the following ten days, heavy downpour led to giant extra rainfall in 5 of its districts and extra rainfall in 20 others. General extra rainfall within the state additionally jumped by 23 % to 34 per cent in that quick span.
As of July 23, 70 individuals in Maharashtra had died as a consequence of landslides and different flood-related occasions overlaying seven districts. This underlined the purpose that local weather change is resulting in excessive rains in a shorter time frame resulting in floods.
There will probably be an increase within the frequency of floods in India as a consequence of rise in temperatures between 2070 and 2100, in response to Local weather Change and India: A 4×4 Evaluation, a report by the Union Ministry of Atmosphere and Forest.
The outcomes of the research are consistent with the present floods in India which are being reported in Kerala throughout September and in Goa, Karnataka and even Rajasthan by the yr.
Excessive rainfall occasions have tripled in central India between 1950 and 2015, in response to the science journal Nature. The shift within the flooding patterns and frequencies begs a pertinent query: Is it time for India to provide you with an up to date map of flood-prone areas factoring within the impacts of local weather change?
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