108. Flood Management in India

India is a topical country and its hydrometeorological condition is dominated by monsoon confined to four months in a year. The intense rainfall during monsoon leads to flooding in various parts of the country in varying magnitude almost every year. Government of India has evolved various policies to cope up with the problem. Combination of various measures – structural and non-structural has been adopted as the best approach to deal with the problem. So far about 15.8 mha area have provided with reasonable degree of protection out of 40 mha flood prone area. Flood forecasting has been accepted as one of the effective non-structural measures of flood management. Central Water Commission is providing the flood forecasting services since 1958. Flood plain zoning is another important nonstructural measure of flood management for which State Governments are required to take proper legislative as well as executive actions.