Japan K Pathak Extremely heavy rainfall of around 12.44 inches in Vadodara coupled with very heavy rainfall of 7.51 inches in Halol on August 26 brought flood to the city of Vadodara. This was a 37 ft height flood, much higher than the floods in 2005, 2014 and 2019 in the city that were below 35.50 ft (at Kalaghoda bridge in Vishwamitri river in Vadodara). Due to this 37 ft height the flood waters travelled to more areas of city in more volume. 23 August IMD forecast on August 23 clearly ga...Read More

Updates: -Two teams of National Disaster Response Force(NDRF) are deployed in Vadodara city. They arrived at the city command and control centre of Vadodara Municipal Corporation(VMC) in the evening. They shall move to the location where they are needed as per the directive. -Holiday is declared in all school students in VMC area on Monday, 30th September due to heavy rains. -IMD has upgraded its bulletin and declared Orange alert for the period of upto 8.30 am on Monday. Earlier it wa...Read More

(The artwork above was created during the 2019 floods by the talented young designer Harshshiv Solanki, based in Vadodara) Japan K Pathak The year 2019 flood in Vadodara was a 34.50 ft level flood, a half a ft more than the 34 ft flood witnessed in 2014 monsoon. The city witnessed unprecedental nearly 20 inches rainfall in less than a day period. There was lack of specific alert for this rainfall from the IMD in advance. Extremely heavy rains in the city, coupled with very heavy rainfall of 7....Read More

Japan K Pathak In the first article's first paragraph only in this series I suggested that the citizens and the city managers of Vadodara must realize that it's a flood-prone and vulnerable place in monsoons. Look at the example of the year 2014. Vishwamitri river flooded Vadodara city in September for roughly over two days and it came as a surprise. In 2014, Vadodara had minus 96% rainfall compared to average in the month of June. In July it was minus 15%, in August minus 48%, but in Sept...Read More

Japan K Pathak In the last article of this series, we read about the 1927 flood of the Vishwamitri River in Vadodara. Vishwamitri continued to flood the city on various occasions through the 20th century. As the overflow was limited to two days in most cases and death toll not significant, and much greater floods elsewhere in the country during the monsoon, the coverage of Vadodara floods remained limited to the local press. However, the floods in 1944, 1950, 1953, 1959, 1970, 1973, etc. can ...Read More

Japan K Pathak More articles of this series – Vishwamitri has long history of flooding Vadodara; Campbell in 1883 wrote that it ‘frequently overflows in monsoons’ Ajwa Dam was built based on annual average 39 inches rain in Vadodara; it’s now 42.24 inches and rising More Vishwamitri floods in Vadodara in 20th & 21st centuries; highest rain of June on record in 2005 caused first flood of century 2014 was a lackluster monsoon for Vadodara, but then came a surprise as Septem...Read More

Japan K Pathak Earlier article of this series - Vishwamitri has long history of flooding Vadodara; Campbell in 1883 wrote that it ‘frequently overflows in monsoons’ Next articles of this series - 1927 flood of Vishwamitri in Vadodara attracted global attention amid reports of Ajwa dam burst and 1000 deaths More Vishwamitri floods in Vadodara in 20th & 21st centuries; highest rain of June on record in 2005 caused first flood of century 2014 was a lackluster monsoon for Vadodar...Read More