Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Prevention of Floods, 11/08/2016
Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Prevention of Floods, 11/08/2016. Floods are a natural calamity that India faces almost every year, in varying degrees of magnitude. The frequent occurrence of floods can be attributed to various factors, including wide variations in rainfall both in time and space with frequent departures from the normal pattern, inadequate carrying capacities of rivers, river bank erosion and silting of river beds, landslides, poor natural drainage in flood prone areas, snowmelt and glacial lake out bursts. The XII Plan Working Group on “Flood Management and Region Specific Issues” constituted by Planning Commission has compiled the maximum flood affected area in the country as 49.815 million hectare (mha). The average annual flood damages in India during the period from 1953 to 2015 are of the order of Rs. 4267.24 crore as per data base compiled by Central Water Commission. The details are given at Annex-1. Out 518 projects approved under FMP in XII Plan, 293 projects have been completed till date, which have provided reasonable protection against floods in 19.593 lakh hectare of area and benefited the population of 197.227 lakh in the country. The State- wise details of projects approved, projects completed and funds released in XI and XII Plan under FMP are given at Annex-2. The Flood Forecasting network is proposed to be expanded from existing 184 flood forecasting stations to 275 stations as per details in Annex-3.