Disaster Risk Reduction with Special Reference to 2018 Kerala Floods and Approaches to Reduce Flood Vulnerability at River Basin

Abstract

India being a disaster-prone country is affected by various disasters every year. The unplanned urbanization and environmental degradation have led to climate change, which in turn has led to the rapid increase in extreme natural response thus increasing our vulnerability to different disasters. Among these disasters, flood is one of the deadliest and destructive natural disasters that India faces. The recurrence of floods differs geographically as some places are more prone than the rest. Kerala is one of the disaster-prone states of India. This south-western state received 42% excess rainfall than the normal from 1 June to 19 August 2018 causing widespread floods across the state. The floods and landslides created havoc all across the state leading to the loss of 445 lives and large-scale destruction to infrastructure, socioeconomic sector, and to the environment. The 2018 Kerala flood was the worst one in nearly a century. It shook the core of the people’s confidence in the ecological foundations. The havoc caused by the 2018 Kerala flood was not only the result of unprecedented downpour but there were other reasons also which turned it more disastrous. To decrease the brunt of any disaster we have a systematic approach of disaster risk reduction (DRR), where after identifying and assessing the risk we take adequate measures to reduce the risk of a disaster.