India's Floods: An Overview

The record flooding that hit India this year, causing widespread destruction and loss of life and affecting the missionary work of Gospel for Asia and other organizations, is a result of an annual meteorological event—the Southwest Monsoon.

This seasonal incident and its accompanying rains are both a blessing and a bane to the Indian Subcontinent, whose largely agricultural workforce depends on the monsoon for approximately 90 percent of its water supply.

"Too much rain, or too little," says BBC meteorologist Bill Giles, "means the difference between flood and famine."

One Gospel for Asia correspondent reported on what "too much" looked like to a GFA survey team in one devastated region of Central India:

"Thousands of people dead, families rendered homeless as their houses were swept away, cattle drowned, crops totally rooted out, villages submerged under the flood waters-and electricity, drinking water and communications systems totally failed."

The floods have affected an especially large region of the country this year, stretching from Gujurat in the east to Nagaland in the west, and from Jammu & Kashmir in the north to southern Karnataka.


India's western state of Rajasthan is known for its deserts, but over the last two weeks, vast areas of this region have been flooded. In a three-day period, Barmar district near Pakistan received 22.7 inches (57.7 cm) of rain—more than double its annual average. Over 800,000 in this region alone have been affected by the floods.


This northeast Indian state forms a large part of the drainage system for the massive Brahmaputra River and its tributaries, which in flood stage often cut villages off from transportation, electricity and phone communication for weeks.

"Normal life in these areas has been greatly affected," said a GFA field correspondent, who reported that hundreds of pastors and church members suffered heavy damage and property loss. "We are struggling to recover."


Water covered up to half of Surat, Gujarat's "Diamond City," and affected an estimated 3.2 million people as a result of the heavy rains that fell in August. Much of the state is still under the threat of flooding, with several rivers at or above flood stage.


Flash floods in this state swept away sections of railway line, submerged bridges and closed major highways. Low-lying areas in cities such as Nagpur and Mumbai were also affected, especially bringing suffering to the slum-dwellers and others with already inadequate shelter. Some homes, saturated with water, have collapsed, killing the residents inside.


The consequences of the heavy rainfall severely impacted residents in thousands of villages in this state. With water levels in reservoirs rising dangerously, officials were forced to release millions of gallons of water into the already flooded rivers. Then, a tropical depression that formed in the Bay of Bengal caused more heavy rainfall for four straight days.

Two Koya tribal villages were completely wiped out when the Sabari and Seeleru Rivers rose 12 feet above their banks and swept through the communities. Villagers ran for a nearby hill as the rivers washed away their belongings and completely destroyed all 260 mud-and-bamboo homes. They waited for two days, without food or water, before aid arrived.


Some villagers were stranded after floods cut them off from roads and nearby towns. The city of Bhopal experienced rainfall of 35.4 inches (90 cm) in just one night, breaking a record of 30.31 inches (77 cm) set in 1973. A girl was killed and six people injured when a tree fell on the group due to the heavy rains.


Widespread rainfall has pounded the state and flood waters have overflowed at least one dam, causing further flooding downstream. In one district, 60 houses were completely isolated by the waters.


The threat of more rain came from the same tropical depression affecting Andhra Pradesh, and fishermen were cautioned to remain at home due to dangerously rough seas. Several rivers overflowed their banks and inundated large areas, and one city recorded rainfall of 6.7 inches (17 cm) in a 24-hour period.


A mountainous state, Jammu & Kashmir has not only experienced its share of floods, but landslides as well. As a result, residents faced transportation problems with stretches of highway either being under water, blocked or caved in. Twenty deaths were reported in the state, primarily from houses collapsing, and thousands of other homes were damaged.


The word "monsoon" comes from an Arabic word meaning "season," and was first used in the 16th century by Portuguese and Dutch traders sailing the spice route to India. It refers to the seasonal wind pattern change that occurs over the Subcontinent: First, the land heats up during the first months of the year; then, as the hot air rises, moist air from the Indian Ocean blows in from the southwest to take its place, bringing heavy rainfall.

Rains from the yearly Southwest Monsoon generally begin in southern India around June 1 and spread northwest through June and July. The rains start to abate from the northwest in September and retreat to the southeast, leaving the Subcontinent around the middle of October. But though the arrival and departure of the monsoon season can be forecast relatively accurately, what is not predictable each year is the intensity of the rainfall.

This has been the case for the 2006 monsoon, which has caused the loss of more than 2,000 lives and the displacement of millions all across the nation of India.