Floods during the southwest monsoon this year claimed 2,391 human lives in 24 states, besides leaving 15,729 cattle dead. While the southwest monsoon season typically runs between June and September, these deaths were recorded between June 1 and November 14, according to data released by the Ministry of Home Affairs during the Winter Session of Parliament. Replying to a question, the Ministry said 8,00,067 houses were damaged and 63.97 lakh hectares of cropped areas were affected due to floods, landslides, cloudbursts and other hydro-meteorological hazards. The highest number of human lives lost was 674 in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra (253), West Bengal (227), Gujarat (195) and Bihar and UP (133 each). The highest number of cattle deaths was 4,230 in Maharashtra, followed by Karnataka (3,400), Madhya Pradesh (1,888), Kerala (1,183) and Gujarat (848). Assam had the highest number of houses damaged (1,31,949), followed by MP (1,18,386), Karnataka (1,15,792), Maharashtra (1,09,714) and West Bengal (83,787). The largest cropped area damaged, in lakh hectares, was in Rajasthan (27.36), followed by Karnataka (9.35), UP (8.88), Madhya Pradesh (6.04) and Maharashtra (4.17). This year, the monsoon rainfall received in September was about 152 per cent more than normal, and over 560 extreme rainfall events were recorded, as per the Indian Meteorological Department. Don't miss from Explained: Why are so many birds dying in Rajasthan's Sambhar?
