Chennai

Chennai /ˈtʃɛnnaɪ/ (formerly known as Madras ⁱ/məˈdrɑːs/ or /-ˈdræs/) is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, it is a major cultural, economic and educational centre. Chennai is known as the "Detroit of India" for its automobile industry. It is the fourth-largest city and fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the country and 36th-largest urban area in the world.

The city is host to the third-largest expatriate population in India after Mumbai and Delhi, with 35,000 in 2009 and steadily climbing to 82,790, in 2011. Tourism guide publisher Lonely Planet named Chennai as one of the top ten cities in the world to visit in 2015. Chennai is ranked as a beta-level city in the Global Cities Index and was ranked the best city in India by India Today in the 2014 annual Indian city survey. Chennai has also been named in the "hottest" cities to live in for 2015 by BBC among global cities with a mixture of both modern and traditional values. National Geographic ranked Chennai as world's 2nd best food city and Chennai was the only Indian city to feature in the list. Chennai was also named as the 9th-best cosmopolitan city in the world by Lonely Planet.

2015 South Indian floods

The 2015 South Indian floods resulted from heavy rainfall generated by the annual northeast monsoon in November–December 2015. They affected the Coromandel Coast region of the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and the union territory of Puducherry, with Tamil Nadu and the city of Chennai particularly hard-hit. More than 500 people were killed and over 18 lakh (1.8 million) people were displaced. With estimates of damages and losses ranging from ₹50000 crore (US$7 billion) to ₹100000 crore (US$15 billion), the floods were the costliest to have occurred in 2015, and were among the costliest natural disasters of the year. The flooding has been attributed to the El Niño phenomenon.

Background

Geographical and meteorological explanation

From October to December each year, a very large area of South India, including Tamil Nadu, the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh and the union territory of Puducherry, receives up to 30 percent of its annual rainfall from the northeast monsoon (or winter monsoon). The northeast monsoon is the result of the annual gradual retreat of monsoonal rains from northeastern India. Unlike during the regular monsoon, rainfall during the northeast monsoon is sporadic, but typically far exceeds the amount produced by the regular monsoon by up to 90 percent. This excessive rainfall can be exacerbated by an El Nino year, which 2015 was.