Karnataka floods claimed 1,300 lives in 10 years

BENGALURU: As another round of floods takes its toll on the state, prompting the government to project a Rs 1,000 crore loss, authorities are scampering to prevent more deaths and damage.


Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre director GS Srinivas Reddy said: “As on Sunday morning, 515 families and 1,985 people have been evacuated across districts as a precaution, and this number will increase.

We will look at releasing a daily report on this.”

While most of the evacuations have happened in Kodagu, Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and Belagavi districts, the disaster monitoring centre has forecast heavy rain in Uttara Kannada, Udupi, Shivamogga, Hassan and Chikkamagaluru . Efforts are on to trace about half a dozen people, while at least a dozen have been reported dead in the past week.

A look at the impact floods have had in the past decade (2010 to 2019) shows Karnataka has lost around 1,300 lives in this period. Nearly 9 lakh houses and crops on more than 40 lakh hectares have been damaged (see graphic) .This is according to the ministry of home affairs (MHA).

Experts said in most of these years the state had also declared drought, which makes the losses twice more impactful than it would have otherwise been. MB Raje Gowda, professor of agro-meteorology at University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), had earlier explained that the state has witnessed both drought and floods in the same year several times since 1975. “Data from 1975 show that Karnataka, owing to its geographic position, is prone to dual situations. While there is an agricultural drought, the state also sees a deluge-like situation in the same year. We need to be prepared for it,” he had said, adding that authorities must especially focus on low-lying districts like Yadgir, Raichur, Bagalkot, Bijapur, even as places like Kodagu, Belagavi and some coastal districts get affected by excess rain.

Better at flood management

An analysis of year-wise data shows the five years between 2010 and 2014 accounted for more deaths than the next five years. Of 1,298 lives lost in the past decade, 713 were in the first five years, while the years between 2015 and 2019 saw 585 deaths.

Similarly, 81% of the total house damages were reported in the first five years, while 68% of crop damages were also seen in those years. This indicates two things: First, the magnitude of floods has been more in the first five years. Second, the state planned better to deal with floods, which helped reduce the number of deaths in the next five-year period.

“We’ve certainly improved over the years. Now we are able to have a better forecast, based on which advance planning is done for evacuation and rescue. This has resulted in fewer deaths,” said Reddy.