bangalore floods

On the evening of November 21st, parts of North Bengaluru were hit by a sudden thunderstorm. Jakkur, in the Yelahanka zone recorded 153 mm. Many layouts and apartments around Yelahanka were flooded. Visuals of a flooded Manyata Tech Park went viral on social media. November is expected to be the start of winter in Bengaluru and the end of the regular rains that start in April. As per the IMD Long Period Average (LPA) - the average rainfall between 1981 and 2010 - November gets average rainfall of only 49 mm, with four rainy days. But this November, IMD Bengaluru…

October saw heavy downpour in Bengaluru, causing flooding and traffic breakdowns in many parts of the city. The city usually gets much of its rainfall in the evenings and nights, which also makes it more vulnerable to flooding and traffic jams during peak traffic hours. Floodings have been one of the most common, inevitable outcomes of climate change. The constant feeding of emissions into the atmosphere leads to extreme precipitation, which then results in floodings. Urban flooding affects transport in different ways, such as increase in travel times, change in route, congestion due to low speeds, etc. There is an…

While providing much-needed relief from the heat, the monsoon also cripples Bengaluru with a whole lot of problems every year. Top among them are flooding of roads and clogging of stormwater drains. On June 1, the state government published a list of eight teams - one for each of the eight BBMP zones - to prepare for and respond to this year's monsoon. The teams have members from six departments - Forest, BESCOM, Fire and Emergency Services, BWSSB, BBMP and Traffic Police. The BBMP's Storm Water Drain (SWD) Department has also identified 211 vulnerable SWDs, which have to be worked…

Independence Day 2017 turned out to be a bright, sunny, yet cool, day – a typical Bengaluru day, it would appear.  Yet, that morning we woke up to a rapidly flowing river outside our house that had completely submerged the main road leading into S.T. Bed Layout, Koramangala. A few hapless souls could be seen wading against the tide in at least a foot of water. Our compound was flooded, too. And murky water had entered many houses in more low-lying parts of the neighbourhood. A walk around the area a little before noon on Tuesday revealed that some roads…

Water flooded through an open footpath near Shivananda Circle, during the rain that lashed the city in May 3rd week. Pic: Shree D N The heavy rains that lashed Bengaluru in last two weeks caused havoc in the city. The flooded homes, waterlogged streets, uprooted trees, deaths, only reflected the unpreparedness of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to handle the rains. The rain on May 14th claimed the lives of two due to a wall collapse in Johnson Market. The following week, heavy rains flooded several areas including three slum pockets in Bommanahalli. Roads in Hosakerehalli were flooded due to…

Google Earth image from 2000 that shows a realistic view of elevation and valley in Kodichikkanahalli area. Recent actions by the government to clear the drainage encroachments in the IT city have proved to be a tough incident both for the administration and to the individuals. Though people getting their plans approved or Khata documents can be attributed to the dark side of the administration as well as of the individual dweller, there are certain genuine innocent cases that are heart-breaking. In the city considered to be IT capital of the country, where a normal cab driver reaches a completely…

The city faces urban floods every year, in rainy season. Here are the numbers you will need to get help, to clear the floods, to clear the fallen trees and to catch the reptiles that lose base and start scouting around in your locality. BBMP Control room numbers Centre nameNumberIPP Centre22660000BBMP office22221188, 22975595South Zone26566362East Zone22975803West Zone23561692Dasarahalli28393688, 22975904Yelahanka22975936Bommanahalli25732447, 25735642Mahadevapura28512300/01Rajarajeshwari Nagar28601851, 28600954 The names and numbers of snake catchers / BBMP wildlife volunteers Sl.  Name Zone Phone No 1Sharath Babu R West 98801088012Druvakumar R South 98862864613Surya Kumar M South 98451252314Mahesh Kumar Bommanahalli 99169689595Shashikumar M South 98450204986Arjun M South 99026004427Yatish U South 99166764208Akshay Kumar M South 98457355199Adil Arif Dasarahalli 988051082410Sreeram V South 966301500011Sanjeev P South 974208433512Vijayababu S South 997248799113Guru South 994515982914Deepak S West 988617939615Nagabhushan Mahadevapura 934124048216Shivaraj S R.R. Nagara 984412378817Spoorthy P East 984453003318Kumar R.R. Nagara 990279471119Saleem Hameed East 998621001520Abhishek S Byatarayanapura 963205050321Arun Kumar Byatarayanapura 900871956822Mohan K Dasarahalli 984508090323Manjunath P Bommanahalli 994523933724Rajesh Kumar M West 903611100725Jayaraj…

Stormwater drain completely covered by leaves and mud. Pic: Srinivas Alavilli “A city will not die so long as its citizens do not give up.” – Ashwin Mahesh, Urban expert I am sure none of us wants to give up on namma Bengaluru. We love it. We are immensely proud of our beautiful city – resident’s pride and neighbors’ envy for all the global brand recognition!  More than a crore of us call it home. It was once called ‘pensioners paradise’ but today it is the paradise for the best and brightest to pursue innovation. We are not about to give…

With the absence of major rivers, floods in Bengaluru are caused only by rainfall. Knowing which are the months that are vulnerable to floods helps in taking necessary precautions. Primary rainy season in the city is from June to September when Bengaluru receives rain from South-West Monsoon, and secondary rainy season is from November to December when it receives rain from North-East Monsoon. Here is the raw data for rainfall in 100 years, from 1901 to 2000. This exhaustive data is plotted in graphs for each month.    100 years rainfall graph for the month of January  100 years rainfall…

A Public Interest Litigation has been initiated by Bangalore-based NGO Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) asking for criminal proceedings against the BBMP officials responsible for open drain in Bilekanahalli. Excerpts from the press note from Namma Bengaluru Foundation: In the aftermath of the death of Geetha Lakshmi, the eight-year-old, who fell into an open flooded drain; and Yeshwant, a 12-year old, who fell into an open unsecured flooded pit respectively, Namma Bengaluru Foundation and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Member of Parliament have filed a public interest litigation in the High Court of Karnataka today. (October 9, 2014) The PIL filed in the Karnataka…