• Citizen monitoring has transformed flood-affected communities in Kerala into agents of preparedness, where local knowledge, vigilance, and collective action directly influence disaster response and risk reduction.
• Community-led rain and river monitoring fills critical gaps in official datasets, enabling early warnings and timely action, preventing loss of life in flood-prone river basins.
• Integrating community-generated data into formal disaster management frameworks offers a scalable, democratic model for climate adaptation in an era of increasingly erratic rainfall.

For most of her life, the annual monsoon inspired poetry in Elizabeth Koshy, a teacher, translator, and poet from Kumaranalloor in Kottayam district of Kerala. But that changed forever after the 2018 flood. She recalls: “Every year, water would rise to the road and subside once the rain stopped. That year, it didn’t. I sat on the verandah watching the rain, and by evening, the water had reached my feet.”

In August 2018, the southern Indian state of Kerala experienced one of its worst natural disasters. Exceptionally heavy monsoon rainfall caused rivers to overflow and reservoirs to fill beyond capacity, forcing the government to suddenly release water from several dams. Nearly 500 people died in the floods which caused widespread damage to homes, roads, agriculture, and livelihoods, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. The scale of the disaster exposed serious gaps in disaster preparedness, early warning systems, and institutional response, even as citizens, volunteers, and civil society groups across India came together to support rescue and relief efforts.

A wheelchair user due to polio in infancy, Elizabeth was with her house help Meenakshi when the water entered her home. Neighbours soon arrived with a boat and took them to safety. After that ordeal, she built a room upstairs with a ramp and later, joined the Meenachil Rain Monitoring Group, a citizen initiative that tracks rainfall in real time. “Their rain updates give me both warning and comfort,” she says.

The state received 2,346.6 mm of rainfall between June 1 and August 19, 2018 — 42% above normal — according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Thirteen of Kerala’s 14 districts were flooded. According to the Central Water Commission’s study report on the Kerala floods of August 2018, the rainfall data prepared by the IMD was based on records from 67 rain gauge stations spread across Kerala’s plains and hilly regions. While this provided a broad picture of rainfall patterns, it also revealed a critical gap: at several stations, records for specific dates were missing and had to be estimated using data from nearby locations.

After the flood, people living along river basins formed local groups to track rainfall and share real-time data. The Meenachil Rain and River Monitoring Group (MRRM) in Kottayam and Equinoct’s Rain Monitoring Group in Ernakulam are among such initiatives.

Filling the data gap

The Meenachil River Protection Council (MRCP), MRRM’s parent organisation, which has been active for over three decades, played a key role. “In 2019, we installed 30 rain gauges from Vagamon to Kumarakom,” says Eby Immanuel, secretary of both Bhoomika Charitable Society and the MRCP. “Volunteers record rainfall daily at 8:30 a.m. and update a shared Google Sheet.”

They began with simple rain gauges costing ₹350 — the kind used in school experiments. As the effort gained recognition, panchayats situated along the banks of the Meenachil river joined in, expanding the network. Today, around 170 gauges line the 78-km-long Meenachil river, which flows from Vagamon in Idukki district to Vembanad Lake in Kumarakom, Kottayam district.

A similar story unfolded in Puthenvelikkara panchayat in Ernakulam district, where the Periyar and Chalakudy rivers meet before flowing into the Arabian Sea. “We were one of the worst-hit areas in 2018. People called it a once-in-a-century event, and the next year, we flooded again,” says Shajan M.P., vice-president of the Community Resource Centre, Puthenvelikkara. “We had to find a way to reduce risk.”

Under the state government’s Rebuild Kerala Development Programme, an initiative called Nammal Namukkayi (We for Us) was launched to help panchayats integrate disaster risk reduction into their plans. While many committees remained inactive, Puthenvelikkara stood out. Trained by the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) and supported by the start-up Equinoct Community Sourced Modelling Solutions, the panchayat implemented rain, river, and groundwater monitoring projects, setting a model for community-led resilience.

Rain monitoring has become part of daily life for Baiju P.S., a retired drawing teacher from Puthenvelikkara. “I started measuring rainfall on May 9, 2019. We installed 27 gauges from Athirappilly to Pallippuram,” he says. He documents the readings every day in large register books. “I’m not familiar with apps and technology, so this is easier for me,” he smiles, turning pages filled with five years of handwritten data — a quiet record of a community learning to live with rain, not fear it.

Turning anxiety into action

Rain, that once brought fear to Kerala’s riverine communities, drives vigilance and preparedness today. Across flood-prone regions, residents have become citizen scientists — tracking rainfall, sharing data, and issuing early warnings. Their collective action has turned anxiety into action. “In 2022, we rescued over 100 families from Koshamattam Colony in Nattasserry, Kottayam district,” says Eby Immanuel. “A volunteer, Gopu Nattassery, noticed alarming rainfall data and urged residents to evacuate. Though the sky was clear, he insisted and sought help from Kottayam Fire and Rescue officials. That night, the area was completely submerged. His timely action saved countless lives.”

“In India, the existing flood forecasting and drought monitoring systems are inadequate and often ineffective. As a result, we’re left unprepared when emergencies strike,” explains C.G. Madhusoodhanan, co-founder and CEO of Equinoct. “To address this gap, we need hyperlocal systems that can provide timely, precise information. Such localised monitoring can significantly reduce disaster risks on a larger scale. This is where community-led initiatives play a crucial role.”

The Kanakkankadavu bridge at Puthenvelikkara in Ernakulam functions as a regulator and shutter. It is usually kept closed to prevent saline water from entering the Chalakudy river. However, when the Peringalkuthu reservoir in Thrissur opens its shutters, the released water reaches Puthenvelikkara within three hours.

“It was in 2021. It was raining heavily, and the Peringalkuthu dam was opened. Around 2 a.m., S.P. Ravi, secretary of the Chalakudy River Protection Council, called to say that water was rising and asked whether the shutters near our area had been opened. When I went to check, they were still closed,” recalls Shajan.

If the Kanakkankadavu shutters remain closed at such times, upstream areas can quickly become submerged. “I immediately woke up Sundaran, a local fisherman familiar with operating the shutters, and together we opened them — without any officials present. That quick action helped prevent a major disaster,” he adds.

Decentralising disaster preparedness

In the early days of rain monitoring, the readings and information shared by such community-led initiatives were not taken into account by the authorities. Today, however, discussions are underway to integrate this information into official systems.

“People stopped being victims of disaster and turned into agents of change,” says Sreeja K.G., research director of Equinoct. “They became equipped with data and became bearers of sustainable solutions. It goes beyond citizen science, because science often operates within the realm of scientists, institutions, and their frameworks. What we witness here is a process where people themselves become the democratic system.”

The Disaster Management Suite is a website dedicated to real-time rainfall data collection from 25 gram panchayats in Wayanad district of Kerala. It is a pioneering initiative in the country, collecting data that is crucial for early warning systems and helping plan proactive measures against potential landslides and floods, to which Wayanad is especially prone.

“Anybody who has a weather station, rain gauge, or totaliser can start feeding data into the portal. This can later be used in our Kavacham portal, which will help integrate rigorously collected weather data and co-read it with an understanding of weather at a granular level,” says Kerala’s Chief Resilience Officer, Sekhar Lukose Kuriakose.

“Community action is indispensable when it comes to disaster management, starting from planning to preparedness and mitigation efforts at all these levels,” says Kuriakose. “We’ve asked the National Informatics Centre to come up with a proposal to upscale the Disaster Management Suite across Kerala.”

In the era of climate change, shifting rainfall patterns pose a major challenge to climate models, climate scientists, and weather forecasting. In this context, initiatives such as MRRM and Equinoct help bridge critical data gaps in climate science, enabling better risk reduction and mitigation efforts.

First Published by Mongabay India on 20 January 2026.