A perennial struggle

The flood situation is still alarming in disaster hit states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with death toll reaching 341 and 82, respectively, in these states. In Bihar, over 1.46 crore people are still affected. However, the situation is better in Assam and Northern districts of West Bengal.

This is not the first time the country has been facing such a grim situation, but since 1953 India has been grappling with regular floods and heavy rains. And it's only the statistics that change, not the situation. A population of 2,005.64 million has been affected due to floods and heavy rains since 1953 . This affected, on an average 31.4 million people during the period of 1953-2016 . The accumulated damages  during this period stood at Rs 2,74,058.1 crore over 60 years. But the worst floods in living memory were of 1978, which affected 70.5 million lives.  

Over the past ten years, 227.4 million population has been affected due to floods, resulting into a total damage of Rs 1,46,088.7 crore of crops, houses and public utilities. While in the last two years, 29 million and 18.2 million population has been affected due to the natural calamity.  

According to a UN report, since 199, floods have accounted for 47 per cent of all weather-related disasters affecting 2.3 billion people, the majority of whom (95 per cent) live in Asia. The number of floods per year rose to an average of 171 in the period of 2005-2014, up from an annual average of 127 in the previous decade.