Waves of Rain: Odisha Must Prepare for Repeated Bouts of Intense Downpour

Gist Odisha has witnessed a highly anomalous monsoon season in 2024 , recording a 29% excess in rainfall driven by 11 successive atmospheric systems over the Bay of Bengal. The repeated intense downpours have saturated soils, swollen multiple rivers, and triggered both urban flooding in coastal plains and landslides in the highlands. For aspirants, this event underscores the urgent need for vulnerable states to shift their disaster management strategies from purely life-saving evacuation protocols to building long-term infrastructural and civic engineering resilience against climate-induced extreme weather. Background The India Meteorological Department IMD uses the Long-Period Average LPA to forecast monsoon performance. For the current year, the IMD had predicted India would receive only 90% of the LPA , largely anticipating the development of an El Niño —a phenomenon typically associated with suppressed Indian monsoons. Odisha's geography naturally predisposes it to distinct flood vulnerabilities: its southern region is predominantly highland and prone to slope failures, while its eastern coast is a depositional plain made of multiple river deltas. The coastal terrain has a low gradient, meaning water does not drain readily…