An overflowing Narmada killed parts of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and water released by the Hirakud Dam flooded several districts of Odisha over the weekend. At least 24 people died in the floods in MP and Odisha. and thousands were displaced when heavy rains hit other parts of India, causing the reservoirs to overflow.
Rainfall was 25% higher than normal in August, which the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) is the highest for the month in 44 years. The previous highest in August was recorded in 1983, when rainfall was 23.8% more than normal.
A view of the flood affected area like Madhya Pradesh. ( AND ME )
In Madhya Pradesh, at least eight people died in the last 24 hours and more than 9,000 were transferred to relief camps during rescue operations; 454 villages in 12 districts of Madhya Pradesh have been affected by flooding caused by incessant rains since Thursday. The latest deaths brought the death toll from rains and floods in MP to 129 since this monsoon. Sixteen people died in the floods in Odisha, authorities said.
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The districts of the state affected by the floods are Hoshangabad, Raisen, Sehore, Bhopal, Vidisha, Chhindwara, Balaghat, Seoni, Katni, Sagar, Shivpuri and Ujjain. Large numbers of people were airlifted to safety with the help of air force helicopters; among them were 62 residents of Somalwada village in Sehore district.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday morning and requested his help in rescue operations carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Response Force to Disasters (SDRF), home guards, police and personnel from other departments. .
Photos: India’s wettest August in 44 years brings 25% excess rainfall
“Rescue operations have continued since Friday night. There are 454 villages in 12 districts affected by the floods. Up to 9,300 people have been transferred to 170 aid camps, ”Chouhan said, adding that he was monitoring the flood situation from a control room installed in his residence. He said great damage had been done to standing crops, adding that farmers will be compensated with crop insurance and other aid schemes.
Much of the Narmada river basin in Gujarat was flooded as excess water was released from the Sardar Sarovar dam in the state and dams in Madhya Pradesh.
According to data from the Interior Ministry, as of Sunday, 175 people had died due to flooding in Gujarat with half the deaths recorded in August. “We are providing aid and relocating people from the worst affected areas,” PTI Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was quoted as saying by PTI.
More than 800,000 have been affected in 500 villages in Odisha, Special Aid Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Kumar Jena said on Sunday. He said 50,000 people were evacuated to safe havens.
According to the Central Water Commission update of August 29, eight dams have overflowed, including the Tawa Dam in MP on the Narmada River; Rengali Dam in Odisha on the Brahmani River; and Hidkal in Karnataka in Ghataptrabha.
Mahanadi River in parts of Chhattisgarh; Wainganga and Narmada in MP are rising rapidly due to the forecast of heavy rain for the next two days, the CWC said.
“It is a dangerous situation. Any dam that reaches full reservoir level when the monsoon is still running can be disastrous for downstream districts. The dam operators should have released the water gradually and not when it is already 100%. The Naramada, Mahanadi and Godavari basins are affected. CWC and the dam operators should have been aware of the likely influx and planned release accordingly, ”said Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the South Asia Network of Dams, Rivers and People.
The well-marked area of low pressure over western Madhya Pradesh and adjacent eastern Rajasthan is likely to move west-northwest over the next two days, IMD said in its bulletin Sunday.
“The extremely heavy rains in Madhya Pradesh and other parts of central India are mainly due to an area of heavy low pressure over western Madhya Pradesh and eastern Rajasthan. We expect the rain to gradually subside in central India, but Gujarat may experience very heavy rains for one more day. Then, the rains will increase in the northern plains when the monsoon trough shifts north around September 2, “said M. Mohapatra, IMD CEO.
The western end of the monsoon trough (low pressure line) is south of its normal position and its eastern end is near the foothills of the Himalayas. Under the influence of these systems, widespread and very heavy to extremely heavy rains are likely to occur over Gujarat on August 30 and 31. Widespread rains with very heavy rains are likely to occur in western Madhya Pradesh and northern Konkan on August 30 and in Rajasthan on August 30 and 31.
“We do not expect any low pressure zones to develop next week, so we expect the rain to gradually decrease in central India. Rains can increase in northwestern India, northeast India and southern peninsula, particularly in the Kerala-Karnataka region, ”said RK Jenamani, senior scientist at the National Weather Forecast Center.
Excessive rains could ensure soil moisture for months. “There are different ways to collect water. But the most important source of water for agriculture is groundwater, rather than dams and rivers. Therefore, the focus should be on local storage and local recharging systems. We have to store rainwater where it falls and avoid runoff, ”added Thakkar.
The monsoon rain over the country since June 1 has been an excess of 9% with an excess of 21% over the south of the Peninsula; 19% excess over central India; 11% deficiency in Northwest India and 3% in East and Northeast India.
According to the Climate Change Assessment in the Region of India, a report from the Ministry of Earth Sciences published earlier this year, from 1950 onwards there has been a significant upward trend in the frequency and intensity of rainfall events. extreme and strong in central India, along with a decreasing trend in moderate rainfall events.
A study published in the journal Nature in 2017 by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology concluded that there was a threefold increase in extreme rainfall along the west coast and central India during 1950 to 2015.
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