Kerala flood –The disaster of the Century
K.B. Binila and G. Maheswari
Department of Zoology, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women Coimbatore-641043 (India) Mail ID: maheswari_zoo@avinuty.ac.in
ABSTRACT
A flood is the rapid burst of water that submerges land. Flood may arise as an overspill of water from water bodies such as a lake, river, etc. It may also occur due to an accumulation of rainwater on the ground in an aerial flood. Flash floods are caused by rapid and excessive rainfall that raises water heightsvery quickly. It might be influenced by several factors including encroachment of flood plains and other natural factors, reservoir storage, land usage etc. The climatic change at the global level has made a severe effect on the flood situation in the state and thereby results in more intense and extreme rainfall. Deforestation, emission of greenhouse gases etc are also the reason behind this flood. The first flood in Kerala occurred in 1924 and after a long gap, the flood again takes place in 2018. And it was sustained to happen in successive years 2019, 2020 and 2021.This article describes the factors influencing flood and occurrence of this disaster in different periods, the steps taken by the Government and the local people to mitigate the flood and associated landslides were analysed.