2005 Gujarat Flood

The 2005 Gujarat Flood was a bout of major flooding affecting many parts of Gujarat and was caused by heavy monsoon rains in June 2005.

Many of the southern districts of Gujarat were on flood alert. Rivers in the Valsad district were well above the flood level. About 15,000 people were evacuated from the coastal regions.

On June 30, the state was put on high alert and the army was asked to stand-by for rescue and relief operations.

On July 1, the trains on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai line of Western Railway (India) were cancelled as the tracks near Vadodara were submerged. Helicopters of Indian Air Force were pressed into service to rescue some of the passengers stuck in the trains. With the exception of Ahmedabad airport most of the airports in the state were not operational. The Government of India announced relief package of Rs. 500 crores.

Due to these floods, crops worth crores of Rupees have been destroyed.

As of July 2 the death toll was about 123 people state wide and more than 250,000 evacuated.

As of July 8, the rail traffic on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai railway lines was restored. The trains were running normally but with a restricted speed to ensure safety.

As of July 11, the loss due to flooding was estimated to be over Rs. 8000 crore (over 1.7 bn dollars).

The Government of India deferred the deadline for filing income tax returns.

This [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900LargeMaps/AHAA-6DUV9P?OpenDocument&rc=3 map ] at [http://www.reliefweb.int/ http://www.reliefweb.int/] shows the flooding of various rivers and its surrounding areas.

A brief time-line

External links

* [http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/jun/29guj1.htm Rediff.com] . [http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/01rail.htm]
* [http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200507021612.htm The Hindu]
* [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12940 NASA Earth Observatory]
* [http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/satelliteimages/112084285270.htm Reuters]