Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025

Regional Overviews

South Asia: Spotlight – India
The most intense floods in more than a decade struck the state of Assam in 2024, triggering 2.5 million internal displacements. They accounted for nearly half of the 5.4 million disaster displacements recorded in India during the year, the highest figure in 12 years. Climate change, deforestation and erosion, and the lack of maintenance of dams and embankments were some of the main drivers of risk, a reminder of the need to continue strengthening disaster risk management to prevent future displacement.
 
The Brahmaputra river and its tributaries are essential to the livelihoods of millions of people across Assam. Around 10 per cent of the state’s population, or more than three million people, live on fertile islands known as chars, highly exposed to floods. About 40 per cent of the state’s territory is susceptible to flooding, and its frequency and intensity have shifted in recent years, forcing an increasing number of people to move, sometimes repeatedly and for extended periods.
 
The 2024 rains were particularly severe and started as early as May when the remnants of cyclone Remal caused the first major flood event. That was followed by two further periods of flooding in June and July, with the number of movements reaching its peak in the first week of July, earlier than in previous years when it peaked in August.
 
Local authorities opened relief centres to shelter displaced people, but as the floods persisted longer than forecast, aid supplies became stretched.Displacement was reported across 30 districts on both sides of the Brahmaputra. Dhubri was the worst affected, with 560,000 movements reported, or22 per cent of the state’s total. Many IDPs were able to return as the waters receded, but nearly 50,000 were still displaced at end of the year.
 
A number of factors play a role in fuelling flood displacement in Assam. Global warming is increasing glacier and snow melt in the Himalayas and making precipitation more unpredictable and intense. Other human factors such as deforestation and erosion have also reduced soil retention and water absorption, increasing the sedimentation of riverbeds which makes them shallower and more likely to burst their banks. This has made people living on chars and along river basins more vulnerable to flood displacement.

Soil erosion also causes floodwater to recede more slowly, prolonging displacement and making previous coping mechanisms ineffective. This in turn has gradually weakened people’s resilience to new shocks.
 
Aging infrastructure and water management are also an issue. Of more than 400 embankments built along the Brahmaputra and its tributaries since the 1950s, over half have outlived their intended lifespan, and a lack of resources to repair and maintain them means a growing number have been breached. The river system is also shared between India and China, requiring trans-boundary cooperation to avoid the uncoordinated release of floodwater from dams, which can increase flooding downstream.

Breaking the Cycle
The scale and impacts of disaster displacement were significant in 2024, but not unprecedented. Flood displacement has taken place in Assam over the last 15 years, with 2012 and most notably 2022 being particularly significant. These recurring events highlight the need to reinforce prevention efforts and mitigate anthropogenic risk factors.

Assam’s geographic and socioeconomic dynamics make this task challenging, but the state stands out with its robust disaster risk management policies and institutional set up. The Assam State Disaster Management Authority and the Water Resources Department are the main institutions in charge of flood prevention and response. Their initiatives include a disaster management plan, a flood mapping atlas and a flood early warning system which covers all districts. warning system which covers all districts. vulnerable to flood prevention.

The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank support the state authorities through programmes to reduce disaster risk and improve water management. They also supported the creation of institutions such as the Flood and River Erosion Management Agency, which adopted a policy in 2021 to assist families affected by riverbank erosion, and currently provides resettlement assistance for those unable to return to their place of origin.

The government amended the land registry in 2017, intending to prevent the construction of settlements in flood-prone areas. This measure to reduce displacement risk has, however, led to the dispossession of some landowners who have no option other than to relocate, sometimes without the documents needed to receive compensation.
 
Assam is also an example of good practice on data. It produces daily disaggregated data during the May to October monsoon season, which helps to better understand the profile of people displaced and their needs. It also recently launched a digital platform that will further improve disaster impact monitoring and accelerate relief efforts.
 
These initiatives show that the necessary ingredients are in place to sustainably reduce flood displacement risk in Assam. The 2024 floods were another reminder of the urgency to build more resilient communities in one of the world’s largest flood displacement hotspots. 
 
Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Norwegian Refugee Council. Geneva, Switzerland.