As many as one crore people are affected and 1400 people have died in rain-related tragedies across the country and damages to property runs into thousands of crores in 14 States. Taking note of grim situation in the recent floods in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, on Sunday reviewed the prevailing flood situation and directed that immediate assistance be provided to meet the crisis. According to the Home Ministry data, as many as one crore people are affected in floods.
As per the situation report pertaining to floods in India, prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs, as many as 136 people died and 170 villages are affected in Gujarat while 150 died, 6000 houses damaged and 640 villages are affected in Madhya Pradesh. East Rajasthan recorded 49 percent above rainfall this season while west Rajasthan recorded 16 percent more rainfall till date. MP recorded 54 percent more rainfall this year.
According to flood situation report, this year, floods have wreaked havoc in Assam, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and among others states. The data shows over over one crore people affected in 18000 villages in flood affected states. As far as five lakh hectare crops have been affected in floods. Several states including Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand have not submitted crops damage data to the home ministry.
According to the Home Ministry, the Cabinet Secretary took stock of the situation, preparedness, rescue and relief operations and directed that immediate assistance, as sought by the states, be provided to meet the crisis. The NCMC has been informed that action to evacuate and rescue people and livestock has been taken by the states and no loss of life has been reported. Adequate teams of the National Disaster Response Force and the Army have also been deployed in rescue work.
It was informed by both the states that due to extremely heavy rainfall and the consequent discharge of water from the Gandhi Sagar Dam in Madhya Pradesh and other reservoirs in the two states, there has been flooding in the downstream as well as upstream areas.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) conveyed that while there has been very heavy rainfall in the two states over the past few days, the intensity is likely to decline from Monday.
Senior officials of the Ministries of Home and the Defence, as well as those from the IMD, NDRF and Central Water Commission attended the meeting.
The Chief Secretaries and other senior officers from the state governments participated in the meeting through video conference.
According to the agriculture ministry, it is estimated that 40 million hectares of land (roughly 12 per cent of India's geographical area) is prone to floods. While floods occur in India every year, data for the last 65 years show that the scale of their impact, in terms of area affected and damage caused, has been erratic. Between 1953 and 2017, for farmers, the overall damage to crops was Rs 1,11,225.621 crore (nearly 30 per cent of the total damages) and 60,49,349 cattle dead.
India suffered damages worth Rs 37,82,47,04,70,000 (Rs 3,78,247.047 crore) due to floods and heavy rains. Besides this, 1,07,535 people were killed, a total of 8,07,17,993 houses destroyed and an area of 466.335 million hectare affected.
