Gujarat’s Kutch district was hit hard by the monsoon on Thursday, with the coastal town of Mandvi receiving 315 mm of rain, while Saurashtra experienced some relief from the four days of torrential rain.
Temple town Dwarka remained flooded despite receiving 144 mm of rain, while the rain stopped in Rajkot and Jamnagar.
According to official data, 32 persons died away in the state between August 25 and August 29. However, authorities claimed that since Wednesday, when the floodwaters started to recede, the toll had increased to 39, with seven bodies turning up in various sections of Vadodara city.
These include five on Thursday and two on Wednesday that were found dead. Up to 32,933 persons have been relocated to safer locations. With a maximum of 1,294 persons saved in Vadodara city, numerous agencies have rescued 2,572 people who were stranded in the floodwaters.
As the Vishwamitri River’s floodwaters started to recede in Vadodara on Thursday, the city’s residents exhaled with relief.
The river level fell below 32 feet, after which bridges over it were opened to traffic.
Jamnagar District Collector Bahvik Pandya said, “A red alert has been issued in Jamnagar for two days; in the last 24 hours, approximately 400 mm of rain have been received. It’s overflowing 25 dams. Those without an appropriate place to live must relocate to shelters that we have prepared; food will be provided. Many people have been saved by NDRF and SDRF. The NDRF, SDRF, Army, and Air Force are working together.”
The corporate offices in Ahmedabad began operating on Thursday, while the businesses within the walled city reopened after a three-day break. The city is also slowly returning to routine. Because of the severe flooding, hundreds of residents are still stranded in their houses.
The Indian Air Force has launched rescue efforts, which include airdropping necessities to stranded residents in Jamnagar and Vadodara and using transport planes to distribute relief supplies. The Indian Air Force carried out round-the-clock operations for three days, airlifting eighteen individuals and airdropping more than three thousand vital supply packs.
IMD issued a warning in the meantime, stating that heavy to extremely heavy rains might occur in the areas of Kutch and western Saurashtra on Friday as a result of the deep depression over north Gujarat turning into a cyclonic circulation.
As the flood situation in rain-battered coastal districts has worsened, here’s an analysis of the factors that may have contributed to the unusually intense rainfall in the region:
Gujarat, which is located on the Tropic of Cancer, normally has a tropical dry climate, with most of its yearly rainfall occurring between June and September. The southwest monsoon’s Arabian Sea branch, which gathers moisture as it passes across the Indian Ocean, brings rain to the state during this time.
However, the current downpour is rare and is related to a deep depression over the coastal region. This deep depression is located on land, and low pressure systems that are active over land seldom receive enough moisture to produce significant precipitation.
The Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management examined the irregular precipitation over years and conducted a study on the variability in Gujarat rainfall during the summer monsoon. The institution’s “Rainfall variability study over Gujarat in 2022” found that the number of days with heavy rainfall is rising and that this is causing flood-like conditions over the state.
According to the “Observed Rainfall Variability and Changes Over Gujarat State” report released by IMD in January 2020, there appears to have been a long-term upward trend in total rainfall across 19 districts in Gujarat. The variability of the state’s rainfall during the previous 30 years was also studied by the IMD.
