Page 1 of 7
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning ISSN: 2395-0463
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ Volume 03 Issue 01
January 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ Page 218
Empowering communities to prepare for cyclone
Rekha Rai
Research Scholar, Department of Geography
Government Bilasa Girls Post Graduate College Bilaspur Chhattisgarh
Abstract
India is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. With its vast territory, large
population and unique geo-climatic conditions, in the last few decades the sub-continent has
experienced many extreme hazardous events that have turned into disasters. Floods, droughts,
cyclones, earthquakes and landslides are recurrent phenomena in the country. The multi-hazard
scenario of India, as depicted by the Vulnerability Atlas of India (produced by Building Materials
and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), New Delhi, India), shows that out of the total
geographical area of 32, 87,263 sq. km, 54% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes, over 40
million hectares are prone to floods and about 8% of the total area is prone to cyclones. Such
extreme conditions and frequent disasters have greatly eroded developmental gains and caused loss
of people’s lives.
Keywords: Disaster, Cyclone, Environment, Floods, Development.
Introduction
The coastal eco-system sustains a large
portion of the population all over the world
and India is no exception with a coastline of
about 8041 km (Arabian Sea on the East and
Bay of Bengal on the West),. In India more
than 10 million people live in nine coastal
states, two union territory and two groups of
islands. Besides, the population pressure on
coastal areas is growing due to migration
from inland to the coastal zone, which is
more developed with more employment
opportunities when compared to the hilly
areas. Unfortunately, the activities in these
areas have exceeded the absorption capacity
of the natural coastal eco-system and the
people who live in the coastal area are more
vulnerable to the increasingly frequent and
intense natural and man-made hazards. This
is true especially in the case of cyclones.
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Journal for Studies in Management and Planning ISSN: 2395-0463
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ Volume 03 Issue 01
January 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ Page 219
Cyclones in India-an overview
In peninsular India, cyclones occur frequently
on both the coasts (The West Coast- Arabian
Sea and East Coast-Bay of Bengal) An
analysis of the frequency of cyclones on the
East and West coasts of India in between
1891 and1990 shows that nearly 262 cyclones
occurred (92 severe) in a 50 km wide strip on
the East Coast. Less severe cyclonic activity
has been noticed on the West Coast with 33
cyclones occurred in the same period where
19 out of these were severe cyclonic storms
that caused a loss of more than 10,000 lives.
(Source: http://www.bmtpc.org/disaster.htm).
The most recent cyclone that occurred on the
29th Oct.1999 in Orissa killed more than
8,000 person and 450,000 cattle, destroyed 2
million houses, 1.8 million ha paddy and
33,000 ha non paddy land. Besides, 90
million trees were destroyed and
damaged/destroyed public infrastructure like
schools, buildings, roads, communication
network, power supply etc. with a total
damage amounting to millions of rupees. The
losses due to these disasters could have been
minimized if the value of disaster risk
management in reducing the impact of natural
disasters had been recognized. On the
contrary, these regions witnessed unplanned
and fast economic development without
taking into consideration the bearing capacity
of the region. When economic development
is coupled with frequent natural disasters it
produces ecological stress and environmental
conflicts in coastal regions and leads to
overexploitation of groundwater, depletion of
vegetation cover, increase salinity,
desertification, erosion of biodiversity etc.
often culminating in litigation and social
tension. The only way to safeguard economic
gains and ecological security of the coastal
ecosystem is to adopt an integrated coastal
environmental planning and include in this
cyclone mitigation strategies to reduce the
vulnerability of the region.
Develop community to cope up with
cyclone
The Community Based Disaster Preparedness
Programme used a pioneering approach of
community-based disaster risk reduction, by
mobilizing communities to become involved,
equipping cyclone shelters and building
people’s capacity to respond to a cyclone.
During the 1991 cyclone there were a high
Page 3 of 7
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning ISSN: 2395-0463
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ Volume 03 Issue 01
January 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ Page 220
number of casualties among women and
children. Studies found that this was partly
because women were not informed about the
threat of a cyclone, and because in this
conservative region it is not customary for
women to leave the house without the
husband’s permission, so during emergencies
many women were waiting at home for
permission to seek shelter. For this reason
there is a need to give particular focus on
gender to reduce the vulnerability of these
groups.
Strengthen Communities through
following assessment:-
Working with communities as a
whole, through developing village
disaster preparedness committees and
disaster preparedness squads
responsible for early warning,
evacuation to the cyclone shelters,
providing first aid, and search and
rescue.
Working with individual households
by establishing micro groups to
discuss and share knowledge on
household-level disaster risk
reduction, such as storing food and
water and constructing platforms to
protect cattle.
Supporting the use of cyclone shelters
as refuge during a cyclone by all
community members – especially
women and children.
Building the capacity of the local
people, and enabling them to ensure a
co-operation between the programs.
Importance of community Development
The evaluation found that the main purpose
of the programme had been achieved: disaster
risk reduction has become an integral part of
people’s way of life. Most of the
communities remembered the programme and
its main activities well. In most places,
although programme activities had not been
continued in an organized way for more than
a year or two after the programme ended, the
programme nevertheless had the desired
long-term impact. There was clear evidence
that people took disaster risk-reduction steps
whenever necessary.
Steps to be taken while empowering
community
Awareness of the programme-
To ensure that the participating
