Floods are shifting and becoming fatal, we should be worried
India Today
As per India Meteorological Department data, Bengaluru received five to seven times the average rainfall in the last week of August and the first week of September.
Bengaluru, also known as India's Silicon Valley, was inundated last week with one of the worst floods the metropolitan city has seen. The unprecedented downpour in India's tech capital brought the city to a grinding halt.
The city witnessed 150 per cent more rainfall than the average during the ongoing monsoon season. Consequent flooding caused the IT industry, which generates annual revenue worth billions of dollars, to rack up losses in the millions. What was alarming was the level of precipitation it witnessed in just two weeks towards the fag end of the monsoon season.
As per India Meteorological Department data, Bengaluru received five to seven times the average rainfall in the last week of August and the first week of September. The famed tech city seemed woefully unprepared for this.
But there is a reason for that. Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka are not known to be traditionally flood-prone. Despite that, as of September 11, at least 123 people have lost their lives due to floods. And that is seven per cent of all such deaths in the country, according to the disaster management division's data.
Karnataka's situation, however, is not unique. Flood frequency largely depends on the frequency and magnitude of weather events. As the climate crisis worsens, and weather patterns change, non-traditional locales may witness more floods. This is something we are already beginning to see in India.
Other major states that witnessed high flood-related deaths in 2022 include Himachal Pradesh (17 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (15 per cent), and Assam (11 per cent). Overall, just seven states, including the desert state of Rajasthan (five per cent), have been responsible for more than 70 per cent of the 1,804 deaths so far in the country.
Speaking to the Data Intelligence Unit of India Today, Professor Deepak Khare from IIT Roorkee said, "In the last few years, rainfall distribution has changed due to climate change as increasing rainfall intensities and decreasing number of rainy days indicate that the country should urgently initiate adequate measures for extreme events in the water sector".
