The Rage of Waters: Understanding Floods

Contents: 1. What Is a Flood?. 2. The Uttarakhand Disaster. 3. Ladakh Flash Floods. 4. Types of Floods. 5. What Causes Floods?. 6. Flood-prone Areas of India. 7. Kosi and Damodar. 8. Ganga–Brahmaputra Floods. 9. Urbanization and Floods. 10. Mumbai Floods. 11. Chennai Floods. 12. Less Trees. 13. More Floods. 14. Other Major Floods in India. 15. Worst Floods in History. 16. Effects of Floods. 17. Floods and Diseases. 18. Preventing Floods. 19. Surviving Floods.

People stranded, schools shut, roads clogged, and electricity snapped—floods can truly wreakhavoc and bring life to a standstill. India witnesses floods with an alarming regularity.

The 2013 Uttarakhand floods, and the many other devastating floods since then, have put the spotlight squarely on human-made factors such as unplanned urbanization, environmental degradation, and rapid industrialization.

This book chronicles some of the most damaging floods of recent times and the trail of destruction they left behind. It casts a detailed eye on the how and why of a fearsome calamity that’s as much human-made as it is natural, with a special focus on the enormous environmental destruction it causes. (jacket)