Flood threat looms large over these 10 Indian states

NEW DELHI: Monsoon has just set in and more than 30 people have already died in floods in North East, 20 of them in Assam alone with over half a million marooned. But an assessment by the Union home ministry, which has worked out a Flood Vulnerability Index in its ongoing study on disaster risk reduction, has listed Punjab as the most vulnerable state and Gujarat facing as much risk as Assam.

Among the top 10 most vulnerable states, Punjab is followed by West Bengal, Bihar, UP, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, Assam, Gujarat and Odisha, in that order. These findings are based on data collected by the Centre on actual areas flooded since 1950.

However, the study points out that if the flood data taken for a period during 1980 and 2016, Assam and Bihar would probably rank higher than Punjab and West Bengal. In fact, last year, Bihar disaster management authorities had reported more than 500 deaths due to floods. The construction of dams in Indo-gangetic rivers have somewhat mitigated the hazards in recent decades, the study points out.

At least five of these flood-affected states have been placed on high risk on two other hazards—cyclone and heat wave. West Bengal has the highest risk of Cyclone, followed by Odisha, Andhra, Gujarat and Kerala. At least 100 cyclone prone districts have been studied for the purpose.

Odisha, UP, Andhra, West Bengal, Bihar and Punjab are also among the top 10 states facing the highest risk of heat wave deaths in the country.

A working paper prepared by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) recently found India vulnerable to more than 30 different types of disasters. In 2015 and 2016, more than 1,100 people reported killed in disasters and over 350 million affected across the country. The damages to properties in these two years alone have been estimated at over $4.4 billion.

A report from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) had earlier said that between 2005 and 2014, at least 167 disasters struck India causing damages of more than $47 billion in properties, ranking the nation among the top four countries in the world with highest number of reported disasters.

The Flood Vulnerability Index has been prepared based on parameters such as areas actually flooded during 1950 to 2016, areas vulnerable to flood and metropolitan and large cities that fall in flood prone areas. On a scale of 10, Punjab has been assessed as facing the highest flood hazard risk of 6.67, followed by West Bengal 6.43, Bihar 6, UP 4.76, Andhra Pradesh 4.49, Haryana 4.12, Kerala 3.88, Assam 3.84, Gujarat 3.38 and Odisha 2.73.

Though Punjab, Haryana, UP and West Bengal had maximum floods in earlier decades, the current trend indicates flood incidents have increased in magnitude in Assam and Bihar in recent years.

The NDMA is currently working on a National Disaster Database that will capture nationwide losses of properties and lives occurring due to disasters and will ensure that states compulsorily report and feed all losses real time into the dynamic platform. This may also help the Centre in deciding the quantum of future investments in critical infrastructure depending on the performance of states in disaster risk reduction.