India, Sept. 4 -- Last week, Nepal experienced one of the deadliest fluvial floods in its recent history. However, Nepal rivers overflowing last week, some of which also flow down to India, had nothing to do with rain. No extreme rainfall event preceded the flood, although rain after the flood made rescue efforts difficult. This week, northern India is facing floods or flood-like situation in rivers precisely because of rain. How bad is it? What are the rivers and regions affected? Here are six charts that answer these questions.

Most of the anecdotal reports of fluvial floods (a flood caused by a river overflowing) in India in the past week have emerged from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Because Ganga, the biggest river flow...