Summary:
Mumbai, Oct 21 (PTI) India received 41 per cent more rainfall than normal from October 1-21 with Uttarakhand alone recording more than five times its normal precipitation, IMD data showed on Thursday.
Providing a numerical perspective to the unusually heavy rains ravaging several parts of the country, particularly the hill state of Uttarakhand in the north and coastal Kerala in the south, the India Meteorological Department said the country received 84.8 mm against the normal 60.2 mm this month.Of the 694 districts in the country, 45 per cent (311 districts in 16 states and union territories) recorded rainfall in “large excess” and 14 per cent (96 districts in six states and UTs).Uttarakhand, where rains have claimed the lives of more than 54 people, recorded 192.6 mm against the usual 35.3 mm from October 1-20.
The monsoon has wrought huge damage in the state, triggering floods and landslides that have blocked highways and smaller, key roads.
Figures for the state were available till Wednesday, October 20. Kerala received 445.1 mm of rainfall until October 20 as against the usual 303.4 mm.
More than 40 people have been killed in Kerala, where videos of a house being swallowed by a swollen stream and landslides give a sense of how brutal the lashing was. Heavy rains have also hit Sikkim, sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, displacing people and damaging property. Experts attribute the extreme weather events to various causes, including warming of the seas, unabated development and delayed withdrawal of the monsoon. Balaji Narsimhan, professor at the Civil Engineering department, IIT-Madras, said it was undoubtedly an “unusual October” and pointed to “infrastructural challenges and unabated development”. “Many of these extreme weather events have taken place earlier.
But now places are more densely populated which amplifies the impact,” Narasimhan, who also studied the 2015 Chennai floods, told PTI. In December 2015, Chennai received its highest rain in 100 years in which more than 250 people were killed.