Ahmedabad: Severe monsoon flooding has killed 213 people in western India, an official said Sunday, as rescuers continue to sift through villages devastated by torrential rains.

The death toll in Gujarat jumped from Wednesday’s total of 123 as waters recede from low-lying areas, allowing workers to reach remote spots where bodies are starting to appear. “The death toll in Gujarat this monsoon has risen to 213,” A.J Shah, director of relief operations with the Gujarat government, told AFP.

Overwhelmed authorities, who expect the toll to rise still further, said they have struggled to cope with the number of bodies needing identification and post-mortems, resulting in delays in confirming the latest deaths.

An official at the state’s emergency control room explained that “only after a post-mortem is conducted we can officially confirm death of a person”. “Since many bodies were found, postmortem took time hence the sudden jump in numbers,” the official, who requested anonymity, told AFP.

The rise comes after rescuers plucked 25 bodies, including 17 members of a single family, on Wednesday from two submerged villages in hard-hit Banaskantha district of Gujarat.

Rescue workers have moved close to 130,000 people from low-lying, dangerous areas as helicopters and boats try to reach those still stranded.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who surveyed the devastation across Gujarat from the skies last week, in his radio show on Sunday reassured flood-hit states that all help was being provided to them.

As well as Gujarat, the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have been hard-hit by monsoon flooding, while pockets of the eastern states of Odisha and Bihar have also been affected.

In Assam at least 77 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been underway since April. Tens of thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed.</s>Authorities race to identify bodies as rescue workers reach new areas and fear monsoon death toll will rise further

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This article is more than 2 years old

Severe monsoon flooding has killed 213 people in western India with officials fearing the death toll would rise as receding waters revealed additional victims.

Nearly 130,000 people have been relocated to safer ground in Gujarat state after hundreds of cities and villages were devastated by weeks of torrential rain.

Helicopters and boats are combing areas including the deluged Banaskantha district where 25 bodies, including 17 members of one family, were discovered in two submerged villages last week.

On Sunday, surviving members of the family met the Gujarat chief minister, Vijay Rupani, who said the rainfall had triggered “the worst flood of the century” in parts of the state.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Soldiers rescue stranded flood victims in Khariya village, Gujarat. Photograph: Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images

Nearly 700 people have died across India in recent weeks as monsoon rain has submerged roads, damaged electricity networks and triggered lethal lightning storms.

Overwhelmed authorities in Gujarat said the state’s death toll, which jumped by 90 in the past day, was likely to increase as new victims were discovered. “Only after a postmortem is conducted we can officially confirm death of a person,” an official at the Gujarat emergency control room told Agence France-Presse. “Since many bodies were found, postmortems took time, hence the sudden jump in numbers.”

The flooding has paralysed Gujarat, with flights diverted from the airport in its largest city, Ahmedabad, more than 150 factories shut down, and an estimated 50,000 cotton farms waterlogged.

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More than 4,000 animals were thought to have been killed so far, local reports said.



The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, who surveyed the devastation from an aircraft last week, has already pledged at least £60m in funding for interim relief efforts. In his monthly radio address on Sunday he said “maximum possible efforts” were being made to assist residents of the state he led as chief minister for 12 years and several others affected by heavy rain in the past week.

Modi said the floods had wreaked havoc on a massive scale, adding that altered weather cycles linked to climate change were having a big negative impact. He announced 200,000 rupees’ compensation (£2,374) to the families of those killed in the deluge and 50,000 rupees to those seriously injured.

As well as Gujarat, the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have been hit by monsoon flooding, as have pockets of Odisha and Bihar in the country’s east. Lightning storms in Odisha and another state, Jharkhand, killed 21 people on Monday with more inclement weather expected throughout this week.

Most of the victims were working in fields when lightning struck them, disaster management authority officials said. Thousands of Indians are killed by lightning each year, most of them working in fields during the June to October monsoon season.

Bihar has reported nearly 140 lightning deaths since May.

Suresh Kumar, West Bengal’s top disaster management official, said 31 deaths had also been reported in a week of flooding in the state. “Heavy rains have caused massive damage in several districts,” Kumar told AFP.

In Assam at least 77 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been under way since April. Tens of thousands of hectares of crops have been destroyed and at least 91 animals, including seven rhinoceros, were killed in flooding at the state’s Kaziranaga national park.

The national park, which rangers said was about 90% underwater, is one of the few remaining habitats of the rare one-horned rhino. The species’ numbers – about 3,300, according to the last count four years ago – have been dented in past years by poachers and flooding in 2016 that killed more than 20, nearly half of them calves.

Meteorologists said the rainfall in Gujarat, close to the heaviest in 112 years, was the result of low-pressure systems developing simultaneously over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea.



Flooding kills thousands of people each year in India, the damage exacerbated by weak enforcement of building standards, high rates of poverty and unplanned communities springing up in high-risk areas. Research in 2016 found that flooding was the most significant risk to communities and businesses in south Asia and that about 113 million people in India – nearly 10% of the population – were acutely exposed to flood hazard.</s>Severe monsoon flooding has killed 213 people in western India, an official said on Sunday, as rescuers continue to sift through villages devastated by torrential rains.

The death toll in Gujarat state jumped from Wednesday’s total of 123 to 213, the government said, as waters receded from low-lying areas, allowing rescue workers to reach remote spots.

Overwhelmed authorities, which expect the toll to rise further, said they had struggled to cope with the number of bodies needing identification and postmortems, resulting in delays in confirming the latest deaths.

An official at the state’s emergency control room explained that “only after a postmortem is conducted we can officially confirm death of a person”.

“Since many bodies were found, postmortems took time, hence the sudden jump in numbers,” the official, who requested anonymity, said.

The rise comes after rescuers plucked 25 bodies, including 17 members of one family, on Wednesday from two submerged villages in the hard-hit Banaskantha district of Gujarat.

Rescue workers have moved close to 130,000 people from low-lying, dangerous areas as helicopters and boats continue to try to reach those still stranded.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who flew over the devastation in Gujarat last week, used his radio show on Sunday to reassure flood-hit states that all help was being provided to them.

As well as Gujarat, the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have been hit by monsoon flooding, while pockets of the eastern states of Odisha and Bihar have also been affected.

In Assam at least 77 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been underway since April. Tens of thousands of hectares of crops have been destroyed.</s>The flood toll in has risen to 218 this monsoon, with 61 people killed in worst-hit district, an official said on Monday.

 

 "218 people have died, with 61 in and seven in neighbouring district," an official of the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said.



The toll increased in the last two days after more bodies were found as flood waters receded in and districts of north Gujarat, he said.due to torrential rain and release of water from dams affected 4.5 lakh people in the state, with over 39,000 people shifted to safer places and 11,400 rescued last week by teams of the Army, Air Force and and State Disaster Response Forces.Most of the people who were relocated have now returned to their villages, the official said, adding the administration was now focused on providing them food and preventing outbreak of water-borne diseases.Relief operation has been intensified as the rains have abated.Chief Minister is camping in the Banaskantha- area for the last four-five days.In Banaskantha, villages along Banas and Sipu were inundated. In one village, claimed the lives of 14 members of a family, officials said.The situation became serious as a huge volume of water was released from Dantiwada and Sipu dams following rains in other parts of the region and neighbouring Rajasthan.Rupani on Monday visited the affected villages in district. He plans to stay in the area for three more days, said an official.On Monday he visited Radhanpur tehsil. Normalcy will be restored in another ten days, he assured the people.In Patan, he said, 58 out of the 87 damaged roads have been restored, and 153 medical camps set up.</s>The flood toll in Gujarat has risen to 218 this monsoon, with 61 people killed in worst-hit Banaskantha district, an official said today.

 

 "218 people have died, with 61 in Banaskantha and seven in neighbouring Patan district," an official of the (SEOC) said.



The toll increased in the last two days after more bodies were found as flood waters receded in Banaskantha and Patan districts of north Gujarat, he said.Floods due to torrential rain and release of water from dams affected 4.5 lakh people in the state, with over 39,000 people shifted to safer places and 11,400 rescued last week by teams of the Army, Air Force and and State Disaster Response Forces.Most of the people who were relocated have now returned to their villages, the official said, adding the administration was now focused on providing them food and preventing outbreak of water-borne diseases.Relief operation has been intensified as the rains have abated.Chief Minister Vijay Rupani is camping in the Banaskantha-Patan area for the last four-five days.In Banaskantha, villages along Banas and Sipu were inundated. In one village, floods claimed the lives of 14 members of a family, officials said.The situation became serious as a huge volume of water was released from Dantiwada and Sipu dams following rains in other parts of the region and neighbouring Rajasthan.Rupani today visited the affected villages in Patan district. He plans to stay in the area for three more days, said an official.Today he visited Radhanpur tehsil. Normalcy will be restored in another ten days, he assured the people.In Patan, he said, 58 out of the 87 damaged roads have been restored, and 153 medical camps set up.</s>Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani on Sunday assured that flood victims in the state will get financial help within two days. The government will also conduct survey of damaged houses and agricultural land, he mentioned. “Government is working towards bringing things back to normal in Banaskantha as soon as possible,” he said, as reported by ANI. Earlier, the CM on Thursday had announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh for those killed in flood.

Earlier on Sunday, PM Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat said that the government has provided extensive relief to the flood-affected states and also directed crop insurance companies to be pro-active to settle the claims of the affected farmers. The government is monitoring the situations in the states of Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal and the Army, the IAF, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and paramilitary forces are working in rescue and relief operations.

Union Ministers are trying to visit the affected states, briefed Modi. “In this situation, everybody is going all out to help the affected people,” he said. To deal with the flood situation, a 24×7 control room is working with the helpline number 1078. The Prime Minister is expected to visit Assam to take count of the flood situation on August 1.

The government has relocated nearly 3,800 people to safer places from worst-hit localities of Chandrabhaga, Vinzol, Nikol, Narol, Isan Nagar and Keshavnagar in Gujarat.

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App</s>New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam on August 1 to review the flood situation in the state.

Prime Minister Modi would discuss all the aspects related to floods with the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and senior officials during his visit.

The flood has so far claimed more than 70 lives in the state so far.

The Centre has already announced an ex-gratia of Rs. two lakhs for the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50, 0000 to those seriously injured in the floods.

The floods in the region have badly affected over 30 lakh people in 29 districts of Assam this year.

Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi undertook an aerial survey of flood-affected areas in Gujarat and announced ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh to the next kin of those killed in Gujarat floods, and Rs. 50,000 to those injured.

He said more than Rs. 500 crore would be provided by the Centre to the State Disaster Management to provide relief at this time of emergency.

The Prime Minister assured that officers from the Government of India will provide all the assistance in short-term and long-term measures to the people in the region.

"Even if we expect more rainfall, relief work will be further intensified. The ministries of Urban and Rural development of the Indian Government will also take the stock of the situation and will provided the necessary assistance to people," he said.

He further said that the Center will provide all sort of the relief to people of Gujarat, whether it is agricultural relief, infrastructural relief or others.</s>Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Sunday assured financial help within two days to the people who are facing losses with regard to floods. Addressing a press conference here, Rupani said the government is working towards bringing things back to normal in flood hit Banaskantha area as soon as possible. “Every affected will get financial help within two days, we will conduct survey of damaged houses and agricultural land,” he added.

Earlier, the Chief Minister interacted with the flood victims and the family members of the deceased in Banaskantha and assured them of government support. The Chief Minister will be camping in the flood-hit districts of North Gujarat for the next five days to ensure faster action. Rupani yesterday said that over 8000 people have been rescued and 70,000 people have been shifted to safer places.

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“The situation in Gujarat is under control, more than 8000 people have been rescued and it is very saddening for us that we couldn’t save the lives of approximately 100 people. 70,000 people have been migrated so far,” Rupani told ANI. The Indian Army is involved in rescue operations. The Golden Katar Division of the Indian Army had released two additional columns on July 26; fully equipped with specialized equipment to bolster the ongoing operations in the flood hit districts, in response to an increased requirement for aerial rescue and relief effort projected by the state government.

There are now a total of five Indian Army Columns engaged in rescuing people in the flood ravaged villages of Gujarat. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh to the next kin of those killed in Gujarat floods, and Rs. 50,000 to those injured.</s>With no sign of relief yet for people in many parts of Gujarat from flood, the government continues to monitor relief operations in the state. It has so far distributed about 20 lakh food packets to the affected people and nearly 90 relief camps had been set up till now, ANI reported Union minister Smriti Irani as saying today. Speaking to reporters, Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani, who also holds an additional portfolio of Information and Broadcasting, said, “90 relief camps set-up till now, 60,000 citizens given relief. More than 20 lakh food packets distributed”.

Yesterday, state chief minister Vijay Rupani had assured that flood victims in Gujarat will get financial aid in next couple of two days, Indian Express reported. He had also said the government would conduct a survey of agricultural land and damaged houses. “Government is working towards bringing things back to normal in Banaskantha as soon as possible,” Rupani said. Last week, the chief minister had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the family of those who lost their lives in the flood.

On Sunday, PM Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat programme had said that the Centre has provided extensive relief to the states reeling under floods and also asked crop insurance firms to be pro-active to settle the claims of the affected farmers.

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The Centre is monitoring the situations in Gujarat, Assam, West Bengal and Rajasthan. The army, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and paramilitary forces are working in rescue and relief operations. “In this situation, everybody is going all out to help the affected people,” the prime minister said in his programme. To deal with the current situation, a round the clock control room is working with the helpline number 1078. Modi will visit Assam to take stock of situation tomorrow, Indian Express said.</s>A year ago, farmers in Banaskantha were praying to the rain gods. The South West monsoon had started to recede and the district had not received enough rainfall till September 18. The Met department had labelled the district yellow on its map as it had recorded a rainfall deficit of 48 per cent. The situation was same in neighbouring Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Anand, and parts of north Gujarat. This year, the farmers are in misery again. Their crops and homes washed away as incessant torrential rain hit the central and north Gujarat. Rivers swelled, dams overflowed, canals breached, and the downpour continued. By July 21, the state had received almost half (45.90 per cent) of the entire season’s average rainfall, and in the next seven days the state received a quarter of the season’s rainfall (26.57 per cent). The huge volume of downpour concentrated for a few days and in few districts took everyone by surprise, from ordinary citizens to those in the state administration.

Anuradha Mall, chief executive officer of Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA), the nodal authority to tackle such situation, described it like this. “Every one was well prepared in advance, but it (the rainfall) turned out to be more than expected. It was like the clouds were locked over Gujarat and therefore the rainfall was concentrated over a few districts.” It all began from Surendranagar district in Saurashtra or central Gujarat. Spread over 10,000 square km and with a predominantly rural population, the district was first hit by heavy downpour that started from July 14. Between July 21 and 22, the district received over 110 mm of rainfall —nearly 20 per cent of the district’s average rain in 24 hours. Several talukas of the district got inundated, death toll in rain-related incidents jumped to 65 and nearly 29 dams in Saurashtra started to overflow. As the state and district administration rushed to provide relief and rescue people, more ominous news awaited.

By July 23, rain had eased in Surendranagar, Morbi and Rajkot, but Met department warned of more rain in north Gujarat. By the time Chief Minister Vijay Rupani returned from Chotila town, the worst-hit by rain in Surendranagar, the headlines shifted to Sabarkantha and Banaskantha in north.

Between July 24 and 25, Banaskantha recorded a whopping 257 mm of rainfall, nearly 40 per cent of the entire monsoon rainfall in nearly 24 hours. Sabarkantha too faced flood-like situation. The district recorded 180 mm, nearly a quarter of season’s rain in one day. The same night, neighbouring Patan and Gandhinagar districts also recorded rainfall of over 100 mm. (See graph)

The downpour refused to abate as it continued for the next two days, with Banaskantha and Sabarkantha districts receiving over 100 mm of rainfall.It worsened further. Rainfall in Aravallis in neighbouring Rajasthan led to swelling of Banas river, which flows through Banaskantha and Patan.

The flood situation compounded further with a major breach in the Narmada canal near Kankrej in Banaskantha. The canal supplies Narmamda water to Rajasthan. According to officials, the death toll would have been far less if the canal had not breached. “The death of 14 members of a family at Khariya village in Kankrej was because of the breach in the Narmada canal, otherwise the toll would have been much lesser,” Principal Secretary (Revenue Department) Pankaj Kumar, who has been overlooking the relief and rescue operations, told The Indian Express on Sunday.

“The breach occurred near Thara village in Banaskantha. We had to evacuate over 10,000 people from that area,” he added. By Sunday, the irrigation department said that Narmada, the largest reservoir in the state, was filled to 94 per cent of its capacity. Almost 35 dams were overflowing, and 49 others had been put on high alert.

The severity of the flood and the havoc it caused could be guaged not only from the death toll — 213 and counting — and damage done to roads, canals, houses and other infrastructure, but also from the expansive relief and rescue operations. As the flood situation started looking grim in the third week of July, the government had to rope in Navy, Air Force, Army, beside teams of National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and state police to carry out the relief operations. Till now, over 17,000 people have been rescued and nearly 1.13 lakh people evacuated, of which 59,189 from two districts of Banaskantha and Patan.

A total of 32 NDRF teams, five columns of Army, 10 IAF helicopters, 11 SDRF teams, 18 BSF teams and other local teams took part in the relief operations that stretches from Saurashtra to north Gujarat. Describing the operations “an example of good flood management,” Pankaj Kumar said: “We had strategically deployed rescue teams before the flood-like situation emerged, so that we were able to make timely evacuation. In Banaskantha alone, we had stationed 10 NDRF teams before the flooding began. This resulted in very less number of loss of human life and cattle deaths (4,170 animals)… Only 63 people died due to flooding during the last one week in Banaskantha and Patan. If you have a five lakh population affected by flood, then these deaths are just 0.05 per cent of those evacuated. We saved 95.95 per cent of the vulnerable population… The death figure could have run into hundreds had it not been for the large-scale evacuation,” he said.

“This is a case where we had proper planning, good and accurate forecast, advance and timely action, regulating the flow of water from the dams, redeployment of rescue teams and evacuation,” Kumar said, adding that the state government also made use of social and traditional media platforms to successfully ward off rumours about the breach in Sipu and Macchu dams. “We tried to give real-time information about the flood situation on social media. This helped in warding off rumours,” he added.

Following the tragedy at Khariya village where houses were washed away by swelling river, the government undertook an aerial survey of the entire Narmada canal in both Banaskantha and Patan districts. The move, Kumar said, was largely meant to assess the damage done to the canal and the availability of drinking water in the region. “Pictures of the aerial survey show that the canal has been breached at several places within a one kilometre area. JCBs and other equipment have been deployed to repair the breached section of the canal,” he said. The government also conducted an aerial survey of the 200-km-long Banas river. “There is always a possibility that some bodies could be washed away and if you do not do this survey, you will find something here or there after 10 days,” Kumar said. The Banas river bank was videographed for two days and no bodies were found. Surveys are being carried out to assess the physical structure of dams like Sipu, Dantiwada and Macchu.

With the rain easing for now, the government is focusing on restoration of roads, power and providing relief. Of the 753 villages where power supply was cut off, power has been restored in 700 of them, said the government. Close to 1,500 sanitation workers have been deployed in Banaskantha and Patan for mop up operations to prevent out break of diseases.

The havoc created by the rainfall was the result of a “strange and unpredictable” phenomenon, according to weather scientists. “The heavy downpour in such a brief period over a small region was the result of a combination of two systems, both developed from Bay of Bengal branch of South West Monsoon,” said Ahmedabad region director of Meteorological Department Jayanta Sarkar.

The first system that developed on July 21 hit Morbi and Surendranagar districts and continued till 23. It was supposed to dry down and move and towards west within three days, but it could not move ahead because of the second system approaching from Madhya Pradesh. “The two combined, resulting in heavy rainfall again from July 25 till 27 in Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Patan and Gandhinagar,” he said.

In 2015, the state was facing deficit rainfall, but heavy rainfall for two to three days in July led to flood in four districts of Amreli, Kutch, Patan and Banaskantha. The vagaries in rainfall could be seen this year too. While some districts in north and central parts of the state have been hit by flood, south Gujarat districts of Tapi and Dangs have received only 50 per cent rainfall. Till July 28, the coastal district of Bhavnagar recorded only 46.84 per cent rainfall, while Vadodara and Chhota Udepur got only 43.55 and 44.25 per cent of total rainfall, respectively.

While one school of weather experts believe that this unpredictable and extreme weather condition is attributed to the “climate change”, the IMD regional director, however, disagrees. “We cannot directly link it to global warming, but then we also cannot rule out its possibility as such extreme weather conditions across the world are not a rare phenomenon now,” Sarkar added.

Last year, however, Sarkar had warned of such extreme rainfall in the future too. GSDMA CEO Anuradha Mall said that this phenomenon has not happened in last so many years. “As far as I remember, Gujarat had received such heavy rain in 1973-74. After that, I fail to remember when did this happen.” As per the Met department though a low pressure built over Gujarat has weakened, the cyclonic circulation still exists over eastern Rajasthan. “On Saturday, another system developed over Saurashtra-Kutch area, but it is not very strong. This will result in some rainfall over Saurashtra and Kutch, but will decrease from Sunday,” Sarkar said.

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Flooding in Gujarat, Western India, kills at least 213 people with the death toll expected to rise as receding flood waters reveal additional victims. Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani says heavy rain had triggered "the worst flood of the century" in the state.