A series of
floods
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...
took place across the Indian State of
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
in 2021. , around 251 people have died and over 100 are still missing due to floods and landslides. Thirteen
districts
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
have been affected in western Maharashtra.
The flood was part of a series of tightly clustered
extreme weather events in July 2021, including extreme rain events
in Henan, China and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and is part of an increase in rain events during the
Indian monsoon season caused by
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
.
History and climate change
Starting on 22 July 2021, Maharashtra saw heavy rainfall in many of its western districts. On 23 July 2021,
NDTV
New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...
reported that Maharashtra saw the highest in the month of July in 40 years.
Climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
could have played an important role in causing large-scale floods across Maharashtra. The observed data shows a three-fold rise in widespread
extreme rainfall events across India, including those regions where the floods occurred. The local meteorological conditions showed the presence of a low so boring system in the
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...
, anchoring the monsoon westerlies blowing from the Arabian Sea. These westerlies brought in an anomalous amount of moisture from the warm Arabian Sea, releasing them as heavy-to-extreme rains across Maharashtra over a week's time. In April 2021,
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK, German: ''Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung'') is a German government-funded research institute addressing crucial scientific questions in the fields of global change, climate imp ...
reported about climate change heavily impacting the
monsoon seasons in India.
Impact and rescue operations
The most affected regions are the districts of
Raigad,
Ratnagiri
Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in the southwestern part of Maharashtra, India. The district is a part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for ...
,
Sindhudurg
Sindhudurg Fort (Marathi pronunciation: in̪d̪ʱud̪uɾɡ is a historical fort that occupies an island in the Arabian Sea, just off the coast of Maharashtra in Western India. The fort was built by Shivaji Maharaj.The fortress lies on the sh ...
,
Satara,
Sangli
Sangli () is a city and the district headquarters of Sangli District in the state of Maharashtra, in western India. It is known as the Turmeric City of Maharashtra due to its production and trade of the spice. Sangli is situated on the banks o ...
and
Kolhapur
Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarter of the Kolhapur district. In, around 2 C.E. Kolapur's name was 'Kuntal'.
Kolhapur is kn ...
.
Due to heavy rains, more than 1,020 villages are affected in these districts. Over 375,000 people have been evacuated, of whom around 206,000 are from Sangli district and around 150,000 from Kolhapur district.
There have been more than 28,700 poultry deaths and around 300 other animal deaths in Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and Sindhudurg districts.
Initial estimates state that over 2
lakh
A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ex ...
(200,000) hectares of crops have been damaged in the floods.
Various infrastructural facilities were impacted and damaged. Around 800 bridges have been submerged, preventing physical communications with various villages. The drinking water supply of around 700 villages was affected and the rainfall also caused damage to about 14,700 electric transformers, affecting the power supply to nearly 9.5lakh (950,000) consumers. , the power supply to about 6.5lakh (650,000) consumers was restored through repairs of nearly 9500 transformers.
Around 34 teams from
National Disaster Response Force
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is an Indian specialized force constituted "for the purpose of special response to a threatening disaster situation or disaster" under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The "Apex Body for Disaster M ...
(NDRF) were deployed for rescue missions in various regions.
The
Central Government
A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...
on 27 July 2021 declared financial aid of . The Maharashtra state's MLAs of
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
also announced that they would donate one month's salary for relief support.
See also
*
2021 Mumbai landslide
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maharashtra floods, 2021
2021 disasters in India
2021 floods in Asia
2021 floods
Climate change in India
Floods in India
July 2021 events in India
2021 floods