Topic of the week for discussion: 17th to 23 rd Oct. 2013
Topic: Reconstructing the Destruction
Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Phailin is a tropical cyclone which formed in October 2013 that is currently affecting Thailand, Myanmar and the Indian states of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The system was first noted as a tropical depression on October 4, 2013 within the Gulf of Thailand, to the west of Pnom Penh in Cambodia. Over the next few days, the system moved westwards within an area of low to moderate vertical wind shear, before as it passed over the Malay Peninsula, it moved out of the Western Pacific Basin on October 6. The system emerged into the Andaman Sea during the next day and moved west-northwest into an improving environment for further development. The system was subsequently named Phailin (Thai: meaning sapphire).
Cyclone Phailin on Sunday left a trail of destruction knocking down lakhs of homes affecting nearly 90 lakh people and destroying paddy crops worth about Rs 2,400 crore, but Odisha and Andhra Pradesh escaped from widespread loss of life. As the largest evacuation efforts in the country's recent history helped keep casualties to the minimum, reports from the two states tonight said that 23 people died, all but two of them in Odisha. Most of the casualties were caused by wall collapse, uprooted trees and in floods
Setting the Bar Higher The aftermath of a disaster in India is almost always an occasion for
accusations, recriminations and loud breast-beating. It is a time when charges
Topic of gross under-preparedness, inefficiency and worse fly thick and fast against governments, agencies and politicians. But Cyclone Phailin has proved to be a Introduction refreshing departure from this rather monotonous routine. With handsome praise coming in from all corners – the media (both mainstream and social) and the people (both affected and not affected) – for the Naveen Patnaik government for mounting a massive preparedness exercise that saved numerous lives, all that the Congress could come up with on Sunday to play its role as an ‘opposition’ party was a feeble accusation that the government had failed to provide cooked food ‘as promised’ to those affected. (Coming from a party which, instead of coming to the rescue and aid of the people after the much greater tragedy of the Super Cyclone in 1999, was engaged in an internecine war of attrition to replace the incumbent Chief Minister – the affable Giridhar Gamang – it was amusing to say the least.)
The evacuation of a whopping 8.75 lakh people, 1.80 of them in the worst affected Ganjam district alone, to ensure that ‘not a single soul’ was left within five kilometres of the sea line in itself was an act worthy of handsome praise. But the Naveen government did even better by getting into restoration work barely hours after the storm had blown over.
All state and national highways in the state were cleared and opened to vehicular traffic within just 24 hours of Phailin hitting the Gopalpur coast. Authorities asserted on Sunday that roads in the interior too would be thrown open to traffic in the next 24 hours. Power connections were restored at many places on Sunday, the day after the cyclone and promised to be restored in all affected areas, except Ganjam district which bore the brunt of Nature’s fury, by Monday evening. It was no mean feat. In sharp contrast, it had taken more than a fortnight to restore power even in all areas of the state capital of Bhubaneswar after the killer Super Cyclone in October 1999.
Other places had to do without electricity for more than a month while the worst affected areas in Jagatsinghpur district going power-less for more than a year. True, the intensity of the cyclone and the scale of devastation this time were much less compared to the Super Cyclone. But there is no denying that there was a world of difference between the level of preparedness before, during and after the two disasters. The lessons learnt from 1999, one of the worst natural calamities in the country in recent times, have certainly helped. But it would be unfair to deny the Patnaik government the credit for the well planned – and more importantly well executed – rescue, relief and rehabilitation effort. Part of the reason Patnaik is getting all the praise is the fact that Phailin hit the state barely a few months after the great tragedy in Uttarakhand. The well oiled efficiency of the official machinery seen during Phailin was in sharp contrast to the gross under- preparedness of the Vijay Bahuguna dispensation in the Himalayan state. Having come to power in the wake of the Super Cyclone, Naveen Patnaik surely knows the potential of a great natural calamity to make or break a government.
The fact that a powerful faction of the Congress, led by the wily JB Patnaik, was constantly at the throat of Gamang ever since the Super Cyclone till he was finally replaced by Hemananda Biswal barely three months before the Assembly elections of 2000 played no small role in the massive victory of the BJD-BJP alliance. Some observers believe the people have still not forgiven the Congress for that great betrayal. With Assembly elections, (just like in 1999) only a few months away, a lot was at stake for Naveen Patnaik this time. If his government had botched up the rescue and relief operations, it could have spelled disaster for his party since it had the potential to wipe out all the good work that he has done over the years. In any case, people have a tendency to remember and be influenced by the recent more than the past, especially if it is something tragic.
Canny politician that he is, Naveen realised this only too well and acted accordingly. The consensus in the state is the BJD supremo has enhanced his electoral prospects by several notches with the away he has handled the challenge posed by Phailin. The Patnaik government, however, was not the only entity that earned deserved, all-round praise for the way it dealt with the cyclone. The much- maligned India Meteorology Department (IMD) too came out tops by getting it absolutely right with its forecast all through the building up and landfall of Pailin. With the London based Tropical Storm, US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Centre and other western weather monitoring agencies predicting wind speeds of 315 km/hr and even accusing the IMD of underplaying the threat of Pailin, the odds against the desi agency were really high. But in accurately predicting not just the wind speed, but also the time and place of the landfall, IMD has certainly done the cheerleaders of the ‘Made in India’ brigade proud.
Read further:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cyclone-Phailin-hits-90-lakh-people-23-dead-lakhs-of- homes-damaged/articleshow/24102125.cms
http://www.firstpost.com/india/cyclone-phailin-why-we-should-all-be-proud-of-naveen-patnaik- 1169997.html?utm_source=ref_article
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/131013/news-current-affairs/article/live-impact-cyclone-phailin