Udupi, Idukki record highest rainfall in 2018, serve future warning
Idukki, the epicentre of the flooding, recorded the highest rainfall in Kerala and second-highest rainfall (3,521 mm) of any Indian district over these 81 days
Kerala now faces the ravages of the worst monsoon floods in 94 years, with 373 dead and more than 1.2 million in relief camps after 2,378 millimetre (mm) of rain over 81 days between June 1 and August 20, 2018–42% above normal or three times more than the Indian average for that period–according to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).With extreme weather events and variability increasing in urban and rural India, as IndiaSpend has previously reported, flooding is likely to become more common, the outcomes attributable as much to poor planning as climate change.
In Kerala, the monsoons have generally decreased, and that was a reason the state was unprepared for such a ferocious monsoon, an IMD official told the Times of India on August 21, 2018. Idukki, the epicentre of the flooding where 51 died, recorded the highest rainfall in Kerala and second-highest rainfall (3,521 mm) of any Indian district over these 81 days, 93% above normal, IMD data said. The highest rainfall in India was recorded over this period in Karnataka’s Udupi district (3,663 mm), which, however, was no more than 18% above its normal.Kodagu in Karnataka, where 12 died after the district was ravaged by floods, faced the heaviest rainfall in 64 years, 290% above normal, between August 9 to August 15, 2018, according to IMD data.Kerala received 255% excess or abovenormal rainfall (98.4 mm) between August 9 and August 15, 2018, five times more than India’s average for that period, while Karnataka received 80% above-normal rainfall (50.3 mm) over the same period, 54% above India’s average, IMD data show.In Kerala, 776 villages in 14 districts were flooded, with 1,398 houses “fully damaged” and 20,148 “partially damaged”, according to the government. In 1924, Kerala received 3,368 mm of rainfall over 21 days, a deluge that appears to have been more intense than the 2,378 mm over 81 days in 2018. While there is no direct causal link between the latest floods and climate change, deforestation and human transformation of flood plains and mountain tops have been implicated.Climate change, however, is the larger backdrop against which recent floods in India have been playing out, with more intense, more uncertain rainfall.Rain events in greater than 100 mm in urban India have increased over the past 100 years, there is an overall increasing trend of events exceeding 100, 150 and 200 mm since the 1900s, and an increasing variability in recent decades, IndiaSpend reported on August 29, 2017.India accounts for a fifth of deaths globally due to floods and heavy rain, with 107,487 people dying nationwide over 64 years between 1953 and 2017, according to Central Water Commission data presented to the Rajya Sabha (Parliament’s upper house) on March 19, 2018. Damage to crops, houses and public utilities was reported to be Rs 365,860 crore–or as much as 3% of India’s current gross domestic product–the data show.On average, more than 1,600 people die every year in floods, which disrupt the lives of nearly 32 million people, the data show. More than 92,000 cattle are lost every year, seven million hectares of land–or nearly twice the size of Kerala–is affected and damage estimated at about Rs 5,600 crore.
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