Odisha Review January - 2016

Cyclonic Hazards in And its Mitigation

Saptaparna Mishra Dipika Kar

As India is a subcontinent being surrounded by like cyclone. Damage to the coastal Odisha due oceans from three sides, it is more prone to to cyclonic disaster hits state economy very hard. cyclones. Although cyclones affect the entire India, So proper planning, mitigation strategy east coast is more prone to cyclone than west andpreparedness is badly needed to reduce the coast. Among all the east coastal states Odisha is disastrous consequences of cyclone. worst affected by tropical cyclones experiencing landfall of 260 cyclones within a time span of 100 Mechanism of years. The fertile alluvial soil of coastal Tropical cyclones are violent storms that deltaicregion, well developed irrigation and originate over warm oceans of tropical area. These communication facility has made this region most are rotational low pressure systems characterized developed from socio-economic and cultural point by spirally circulating wind around the centre called of view and most populous region of the state eye. The eye is a region of calm with subsiding air thus making this region highly vulnerable to hazards and around the eye wall there is strongspiraling ascent of air to greater height reaching the tropopause.

The energy that intensifies the storm comes from the condensation process in the towering cumulonimbus clouds surrounding the centre of the storm. On reaching the land the moisture supply is cut off and the storm dissipates. The place where cyclone crosses the coast is called landfall of the cyclone.

The entire peninsular India lies in the tropical region with the north eastern trade winds flowing over them. Also the cyclones travel in an east to west direction thus, facing the eastern coastal plain more frequently. The tropical cyclones develop over warm tropical waters. Sea

37 January - 2016 Odisha Review surface temperature of the is 2 to Odisha coast out of which 180 were depression, 3 degree Celsius more than the sea surface 57 were storms and 23 were severe storm which temperature of the Arabian Sea. Hence it accounted for 69%, 22% and 9% respectively experiences more cyclones. The tropical cyclones of the total disturbances. are more attracted towards the wet points. The wet points in the east coast outnumber the wet Most of the major cyclones have points over the western plain, thus making the occurred in the month of October and November eastern plain more susceptible to cyclones.The i.e in post monsoonal season and the graph below tropical cyclones, which move from high pressure shows that : areas above the sea to the low pressure areas • More numbers of depressions have affected over the land, are hindered by the formidable the Odisha coast in the month of July and Western Ghats on the west coast. While the August Eastern Ghats are present but are not that formidable to be able to hinder the movement of • More numbers of storms have affected cyclones. So subtle geographical variation over Odisha coast in the month of June and July the eastern and western coasts make our eastern coasts more susceptible and vulnerable to tropical • More numbers of severe storms have cyclones. affected Odisha coast in the month of September and October.

ODISHA

Odisha and Cyclone Source- www.ndma.gov.in Among all the coastal states of India Odisha is more prone to cyclone where nearly In Odisha cyclonic storm exposes people one third of cyclones of east coast visits the state and landscape to the impact of three types of Odisha. Out of the total severe cyclonic storms hazards i- e high speed wind, storm and tidal of the Bay of Bengal 15% affect Odisha and surge, heavy torrential rainfall which leads to districts like , , Jajpur, , physical destruction, saline inundation of low-lying Puri, Ganjam, Kendrapara, , area and flooding respectively. The severe storms Khordha, Gajapati are more prone to cyclone. of 1942, 1967, 1971, 1977, 1990-Super In the last 100 years total 260 have confronted Cyclone and the recently occurred Phailin of 2013

38 Odisha Review January - 2016 have led to devastation of public life, public land, 75% of the standing trees of coastal property and great death toll. But the Super area. Cyclone of 1999 broke all the records of 100 • Cyclone disrupted the entire network of years regarding intensity of the hazard and loss of telecommunication, transmission towers, life and property. poles, lines, exchange and supply of 1999- Super Cyclone: An Overview electricity, supply of water along with damaging bridges, roads and government The super cyclone which Odisha faced as well as private buildings. on 29th Oct 1999 with a wind speed of more than 300 k.m per hour, made landfall near Ersama • Vast area, nearly 10 blocks in the coastal (Jagatsinghpur)and caused rainfall of 45 to 90 c.m. districts ranging from Puri to Kendrapara suffered from saline inundation due to

Blocks of Odisha (1999)

It was probably the greatest cyclonic disaster ever recorded in the last century. flooding and cyclone induced tidal surge of 6 to 8 meters. Damage caused due to super cyclone-1999 • Cyclone destroyed 90% of the coastal • The cyclone affected 1.89 crores people in vegetation, mangroves of Kendrapara and 14 districts of Odisha along with death toll Jagatsinghpur along with vanishing the of approximately 10,000 with loss of 4.45 coastal shelter belt plantation and casuarina lakh livestock, crops of 18.43 lakh hectare forest from Paradip to Konark.

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Devastation of super cyclone left everybody • The warning received by IMD at state level traumatized but the disastrous consequences of is communicated to the district collectors recently occurred severe cyclonic storm Phailin which is communicated further to the had been reduced to a greater extent i.e., only 23 Tahsildars and B.D.Os. death toll due to proper planning, vast evaluation • Prior to 1999,there were only 23 cyclone and implementation of mitigation strategy. centers while in the post super cyclone Mitigation And Management Of Cyclonic period 97 multipurpose cyclone shelters, Hazard 10042 school cum cyclone shelters were constructed by state government. Existing disaster management arrangements • Government of Odisha is implementing • The state government has formulated a GOI-UNDP Disaster Risk Management disaster management policy with a focus on programme in the cyclone prone blocks and total risk management and vulnerability stressing on formation of disaster reduction, strengthening physical management team at village level. infrastructure, psychological as well as socio-economic status of people to reduce • Extensive trainings have been conducted for vulnerability. officers at different level on specialized training in search and rescue operation and • A state level natural calamity committee has psychological first aid. been formed under the chairmanship of Chief Minister for overall supervision and Major disaster risk reduction initiatives monitoring at the state level with subordinate being taken committees and village level task force • After super cyclone Government of Odisha committee at district level, block level and constituted Odisha State Disaster Gram Panchayat level. Management Authority(OSDMA) to have • A four stage warning system for tropical a systematic and planned approach to cyclone is followed by IMD since 1999 disaster mitigation and management in the state. ° Pre cyclone watch- a special bulletin is issued containing early information about the • State Government have constituted 5 units development of cyclonic disturbances. of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force(ODRAF) being procured with ° Cyclone alert –It is issued at least 48 hours equipment for use during disaster in advance of the expected commencement management. of adverse weather over the coastal area. • Government has implemented UNDP ° Cyclone warning – it is issued at least 24 sponsored Disaster Risk Management hours in advance. Programme at multi-level and construction ° Post landfall scenario-It is issued to cover of Emergency Operation Centers or the devastating impact of the cyclone in Control Room. coastal areas. • 22 satellite phones have been provided to ° After the weakening of the cyclone into a 17 districts and toll free numbers 1077 and depression stage, a final message on 1070 installed in district Control Rooms and dewarning is issued. State Control Room respectively.

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• OSDMA has started reconstruction and moved up from the coast land of Odisha to construction of new saline embankments, safer places. roadand water supply construction of health • The Odisha Government issued high alert to centers, educational centers and agro – cyclone prone districts and canceled the service centers in the aftermath of cyclone. Dussehra holiday of employees in all 30 Projects taken to hand on cyclone risk districts of Odisha. mitigation • Food and relief material were stocked-up Many projects are taken into hand by at storm shelters across the State and made Government through National Cyclone Risk arrangement for over1000560 food packets Mitigation Project(NCRMP) of which following for relief. are the important projects- Cyclone being a natural phenomenoncannot • Construction of multipurpose cyclone be stifled or we cannot change its path but with shelters. preparedness, proper mitigation strategy and • Construction and renovation of proper disaster management we can considerably embankments and coastal canals for reduce the devastation of public life and public improved drainage. property and other disastrousconsequences of cyclone to a great extent. The recent cyclone • Construction of approaching roads for Phailin is a burning example of this. connectivity to cyclone shelters and served villages. References : • As it happened: cyclone reaches Odisha by Tripti • Shelter belt plantation and casuarina forests. Lahari, India Real Time, 12/oct/2013 • Regeneration of mangroves. • A report on Phailin by Prasad Nichenametla, The Hindustan Times, 13/oct/2013 Reduction Of Loss Due To Proper • Mitigation of flooding and cyclone hazards in Management And Mitigation Orissa, India- P. Chittibabu, A.D. Rao, U.C. Phailin –An Overview Mohanty, S.K. Dube, J.B. Macnabb, T.S. Murty, P.C. Sinha It is the second strongest tropical • Orissa(India) super-cyclone : impact and cycloneever to make landfall in India behind only emergency management- V.K. Sharma and A.A. 1999 super cyclone. It hit Odisha on 12 October Khan 2013 havingaverage wind speed of 250 k.m/ • www.wikipedia.com hourand made landfall near Gopalpurin • www.slideshare.net Odisha.Total death toll was 44 with loss of 42.4 • www.osdma.org billion rupees while it was 6243.96 million rupees. • www.ncrmp.gov.in Mitigation • www.imd.gov.in • 600 buildings were identified as cyclone shelter and people were evacuated from areas near the coast. Saptaparna Mishra, (JRF), M.Phil And Dipika Kar, • The cyclone prompted in India’s biggest M.Phil, P.G Dept. Of Geography, Utkal University, Vani evacuation with more than 11 lakh people Vihar, Bhubaneswar.

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