This is a list of notable recorded floods that have occurred in India.
In the 20th century
In October 1943, Madras saw the worst flood to hit the city. Flood occurred due to excessive rains that lasted for 6 days and overflowed Coovum and the Adyar rivers. Damage caused to life and property was immense however estimate figure is unknown. the flood left thousands of people homeless.
In 1987, Bihar state of India witnessed one of its worst floods till then. Flood occurred due to overflow of the Koshi river; which claimed lives of 1,399 humans, 302 animals and public property worth INR.
In 1988, Pubjab experienced its first flood when all the rivers in Punjab overflowed.
Heavy rains across the state of Maharashtra, including large areas of the metropolis Mumbai which received 567 alone on 26 July 2005 killed at-least 1,094 people. The day is still remembered as the day Mumbai came to a standstill, as the city faced worst ever rain. Mumbai International Airport remained closed for 30 hours, Mumbai-Pune Expressway was closed for 24 hours with public property loss was estimated at.
June 2013 North Indian floods: Heavy rain due to a burst of a cloud caused severe floods and landslides on the North Indian states, mainly Uttarakhand and nearby states. More than 5,700 people were presumed dead.
June 2015 Gujarat flood: Heavy rain in June 2015 resulted in widespread flood in Saurashtra region of Gujarat resulting in more than 70 deaths. The wild life of Gir Forest National Park and adjoining area was also affected.
July 2015 Gujarat flood:Heavy rain in July 2015 resulted in widespread flood in north Gujarat resulting in more than 70 deaths.
2015 South Indian floods:Heavy rain in Nov-Dec 2015 resulted in flooding of Adyar, Cooum rivers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu resulting in financial loss and human lives.
2016 Assam floods: Heavy rains in July–August resulted in floods affecting 1.8 million people and flooding the Kaziranga National Park killing around 200 wild animals.
2017 Gujarat flood: Following heavy rain in July 2017, Gujarat state of India was affected by the severe flood resulting in more than 200 deaths.
August 2018Kerala Flood: Following high rain in late August 2018 and heavy Monsoon rainfall from August 8, 2018, severe flooding affected the Indian state of Kerala resulting over 445 deaths.
August 2019 Indian floods: Following high rain in late July and early August 2019, series of floods that affected over nine states in India. The states of Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat were the most severely affected.
Brahmaputra floods
2020 Assam floods
Climate change
Climate change has played an important role in causing large-scale floods across central India, including the Mumbai floods of 2006 and 2017. During 1901-2015, there has been a three-fold rise in widespread extreme rainfall events, across central and northern India – Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam and parts of Western Ghats – Goa, north Karnataka and South Kerala. The rising number of extreme rain events are attributed to an increase in the fluctuations of the monsoon westerly winds, due to increased warming in the Arabian Sea. This results in occasional surges of moisture transport from the Arabian Sea to the subcontinent, resulting in heavy rains lasting for 2–3 days, and spread over a region large enough to cause floods.
