Floods in India: Lists, Reasons & Impact of Climate Change

The floods occur due to natural or man-made disasters, mainly caused by heavy monsoon rainfall, river siltation, glacial lake outburst in Himalayas, and unplanned urbanisation. It affects about 12% of the total land area in India. The Ganga and Brahmaputra river basins are flood-prone regions impacting Indian states of Assam, Bihar, and West Bengal every year. The Flash floods have a very high speed which can destroy the infrastructure and livelihood in a short span of time. They are responsible for about 40% of natural disasters globally every year.

The flash floods are fast and sudden outburst resulting in the high speed flow of heavy water, mud and debris down causing catastrophe.

Recently, a disastrous flash flood hit the northern region of Nepal along the Nepal-Tibetan border on 26th August 2026. It was triggered by a massive, high altitude glacial rock and ice avalanche collapse near the mountain peak of Langtang Lirung in the Himalayas, in the region of the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river system. It swept away villages, roads, bridges and hydropower sites in Rasuwa and other downstream districts.

The flash flood in Nepal has caused thousands of loss of lives with many people still gone missing, and numerous houses were destroyed. The disaster highlighted the growing risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and ice-rock avalanches in the Hindu Kush and Himalayan region.

S.No.	Year	Region	Type of Flood	Key Impacts
1	2018	Kerala	Monsoon & river floods	It resulted in the death of hundreds of people. It caused damage to major infrastructure and crop loss.
2	2015	Chennai (Tamil Nadu)	Urban & monsoon floods	It caused severe disruption in the city and resulted in the death of many people.
3	2014	Jammu & Kashmir	River & rainfall floods	It caused widespread damage to homes, bridges and agriculture.
4	2013	Uttarakhand (Kedarnath)	Flash floods & landslides	It caused severe damages to temples, roads, and hydropower. It resulted in the death of thousands of people and left many missing.
5	2008	Bihar (Kosi river)	River flood (avulsion)	It affected lakhs of people and large-scale evacuation & displacement.
6	2006	Gujarat	River & monsoon floods	It resulted in crop loss, evacuations, and damaged the infrastructure.
7	2005	Mumbai (Maharashtra)	Urban flash flood	It affected the transportation in the city and resulted in the loss of many lives.
8	1979	Morbi (Gujarat)	Dam-break flood in Machhu	It caused very high casualties and devastated the town.
9	1970	Andhra Pradesh coast	Cyclone & coastal floods	It causes severe destruction of coastal regions and numerous deaths.
10	1924	Kerala	Extreme monsoon flood	Historical high floods.

• 1) Torrential Rain
• 2) Rapid Snowmelt
• 3) Tropical Cyclone
• 4) Ice Jams

Climate Change is increasing the risk of flooding in India. It usually intensifies the hydrological cycle. A warmer atmosphere holds about 7% more moisture in every 1°C rise. It enables short duration, high intensity rainfall which gets merged in rivers, drains and hill slopes. The extreme rainfall events in India have roughly become 3 times in recent decades. It further increases flash floods in the Himalayan and urban areas such as Chennai, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

The Warming oceans have increased the rate of evaporation and affected the monsoon cycle which produces heavy bursts of rainfall. In mountain regions, higher temperatures increase the melting of glaciers and destabilize glacial lakes. This phenomenon increases the chances of GLOFs and ice-rock avalanches such as in Uttrakhand in 2013 and Nepal in 2026.

The anthropogenic or human made disasters are a result of deforestation, construction in fragile regions, and encroachment of floodplain reduces the natural storage and drainage. The combination of climate driven extreme and land use change make floods more frequent, severe and less predictable.