Floods/heavy rains can cause a severe and irreversible damage to human lives, property both public and private, and livestock. Since floods are one of the frequent natural calamities faced by India, the loss incurred by it is huge. To give an idea of how big it can be, this compilation by the Central Water Commission provides state-wise data on the damage caused by floods/heavy rains for the time period of 1953-2011.

The data is presented in a tabular format under the following heads :

• Area affected in million hectares
• Population affected in millions
• Damage to crops
• Damage to houses
• No.of cattles lost
• No.of lives lost
• Damage to public utilities
• Aggregated data of all losses