Most horrifying natural disasters India has witnessed in the last decade
India is a very large country (3.287 million km²) and due to its vast size within the Indian sub-continent, it is highly vulnerable to both natural and manmade disasters. Being surrounded by the Himalayas, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean makes it highly vulnerable to Mother Nature’s fury. Moreover, it sits almost entirely on the Indian Tectonic plate which makes it prone to regular seismic activities.
Due to various geo-climatic and socio-economic drawbacks nearly 6% of India’s population of India is annually prone to natural disasters like flash floods, landslides, earthquakes, cyclones, droughts and avalanches which result in heavy loss of lives as well as livelihoods.
In this article, we relive the horrors of the eleven most horrifying natural disasters India has witnessed in the last decade:
1) Odisha Super Cyclone
- Year: 1999
- Areas affected: Primarily Odisha and parts of West Bengal
- Death Toll: 15,000
The deadliest tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean since 1971 led to extensive damage and loss in the state of Odisha (then Orissa). It ended up leaving 1.67 million people homeless after having destroyed more than 2,75,000 homes.
2) Gujarat Earthquake
- Year: 2001
- Areas affected: Bhuj, Gujarat and Ahmedabad
- Death Toll: 20,000
A massive earthquake of magnitude 7.7 hit the Bhachau Taluka near Bhuj of Kutch District, Gujarat on India’s 51st Republic Day (January 26, 2001). It left 166,000 people injured. In Ahmedabad, 50 multi-storey buildings were razed to dust.
3) Indian Ocean Tsunami
- Year: 2004
- Areas affected: South India, Andaman and Nicobar Islands
- Death Toll: 2 lakh+
After a killer 9.3 earthquake hit the west coast of Sumatra, a gargantuan tsunami lasting 10 minutes erupted in the Indian Ocean causing massive destruction in the upper basin of the Indian ocean. It was as powerful as 23,000 Hiroshima atomic bombings and is the third-largest earthquake recorded in history.
- Mumbai Floods
- Year: 2005
- Areas affected: Mumbai, Thane, Raigad
- Death Toll: 5,000
Barely a month after the Gujarat Floods, Mumbai was hit by a massive tropical under-current in the Arabian Sea which inundated the entire trans-Bombay region bringing the city of Mumbai to a standstill. The rainfall recorded then (1168 mm/46 inches) is the highest recorded in the country till date over a 12-hour gap.
- Maharashtra Drought
- Year: 2013
- Areas affected: Jalna, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nanded, Aurangabad, Osmanabad
- Death Toll: 2,000+ and continuing till date
Occurring after the lowest recorded Maharashtrian rainfall in 2012, this was the worst drought of this region in 40 years. The drought has led to thousands of farmer suicides, diminishing Rabi crops and over 11,801 villages with zero drinking water. 4.5 lakh animals are still in need of quality fodder.
- Uttarakhand Flash Floods
- Year: 2013
- Areas affected: Gobindghat, Rudraprayag, Kedarnath Dham and parts of Himachal Pradesh
- Death Toll: 5,700+
Massive cloudbursts in River Ganga led to 4 days of continuous landslides and flood water gushing around the Kedarnath shrine and Gobindghat plains. More than 1,00,000 pilgrims stranded here were airlifted to safety in India’s biggest inland airlift operation.
- Kashmir Floods
- Year: 2014
- Areas affected: Srinagar Main, Bandipura, Rajouri, Dras
- Death toll: 500+
Flash floods drowned more than 2600 villages in Jammu and Kashmir and completely submerged large areas of Srinagar. Damages to 50 main bridges connecting Kashmir to the rest of India hampered rescue efforts.
- Cyclone Hudhud
- Year: 2014
- Areas affected: Vishakhapatnam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- Death toll: 120+
With wind speeds of more than 175 km/h, half of Vishakhapatnam drowned in this cyclone. Damages to the tune of 21, 900 crores completely hit the economic status of the port city.
- Chennai Floods
- Year: 2015
- Areas affected: Mainly Chennai and other part of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh
- Death toll: 500+
Displacing over 18 lakh people and almost completely submerging the city of Chennai under water, this cyclone cost damages of over 20,000 crore. It is considered the costliest natural disaster in the history of India.
- Kerala Floods
- Year: 2018
- Areas affected: entire state of Kerela
- Death toll: 370+
A million people were evacuated when unusually high rainfall almost wiped out the entire Kerela landmass. All 14 districts of the state were underwater and 1/6th of the state’s population was affected by this flood. It is argued that sudden release of water from Mullaperiyar Dam by the-then Tamil Nadu government along with torrential rainfall is what led to the magnitude of this devastating flood in the state.
- Super Cyclone Fani
- Year: 2019
- Areas affected: primarily Odisha, West Bengal and parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh
- Death toll: 89+
The strongest cyclone after 2013’s Phailin caused more than US$1.81 billion in accidental damages in Bangladesh and India. Since the Governments of India and Odisha had prepared for this aftermath in advance, the loss of lives were comparatively lower to previous cyclones. More than 1.2 million people had been evacuated in advance before the landfall of the cyclone.
