Additional Memorandum: Kerala Floods – 2018 (1st August to 30th August 2018)

Kerala is a land of rains and rivers. The State has mainly two rainy seasons viz. the Southwest monsoon that arrives towards the end of May or early June, which is known as edavapathi and Northeast season which hits the State during mid-October which is known as thulam.

The swirling, jostling, billowing monsoon rains was a part of the State every year, however, the Southwest season of 2018 had a different impact as the monsoon resulted in a disastrous flood. In a span of 30 days, 339 human lives were lost, thousands of houses damaged, over a million and half people were moved to relief camps, large stretches of major roads got washed away and many bridges got damaged. Cochin International Airport which is one of the busiest International airports of the country got flooded and suspended its operations from 15th to 29th of August 2018. Uninterrupted rains lashed most areas of the State from 8th to 18th of August 2018 which resulted in wide spread destruction in all the major sectors of the state.

The floods of Southwest season can be comprehended as an evident example of global climate change impact with very heavy rainfall in a short span of time as indicated and predicted by the Fifth Assessment Report published by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) in 2014.