In September, floods wreaked havoc across three Indian cities. In Bengaluru, hefty rainfall during the first week of the month resulted in traffic bottlenecks, power outages, and flooded houses and offices that brought the Silicon Valley of India to a standstill. Some days later, heavy overnight rainfall flooded different parts of Hyderabad. Similar was the case in Pune, where flash floods and water logging paralysed parts of the city. The recent floods have brought attention to the damage they cause to human lives, with property destroyed and work-cycles interrupted.
While the floods in these cities have caused significant damage, data shows that India is no stranger to such events and has witnessed far worse rain-related calamities in its history.
The destructive power of flood waters is difficult to measure because they affect people in different ways. To a farmer, losing crops. To a dairy owner, losing cattle. To a homeowner, losing a house. And above all, to all of them and others, losing their dear ones. Yet, here we took into account three parameters — number of human lives lost, number of cattle lost and number of houses damaged — to quantify the intensity of the destruction caused by heavy rains and floods in various parts of the country between 1953 and 2020.
