Odisha a state under cyclones: its history and how the state is managing
Due to the geological positioning of Odisha has always been the hotspot of cyclones for a long time but in recent few years, it’s getting hit by cyclones very frequently, so let’s know all its history and why it’s happening so customarily.
Odisha’s cyclone history
Odisha has a long history of cyclones as if we look into the pages of archives on 31 October 1831 a very severe cyclonic storm got hit the Balasore district of Odisha where 50,000 peoples had lost their lives and after that for various occasions like in 1885,1967 and 1971 Odisha got hit by cyclones and many lives were lost.
But in the year 1999 Odisha got under a super cyclonic storm which was probably one of the strongest cyclones that the state had ever faced. In this super cyclone, Paradip coastline got affected the most where many peoples had lost their lives.
After the super cyclone in 1999, Odisha is getting under cyclones more frequently in the last decade only Odisha got hit by almost 4 cyclones i.e in 2013 — failin, 2014-hudhud, 2018-Titli, 2019- Fani and this year Odisha got hit by another cyclone called Amphan.
How the state is managing
After the disastrous cyclone in 1999, the Odisha govt had taken some actions which are now helping the state to fight with dreadful scenarios.
The state govt had invested their funds in building 882 cyclone shelters where each shelter is capable of housing about 500 people and in 2013 during the time of fani, around one million people were evacuated from the seaside areas and placed safely in cyclone shelters.
In 2018 Odisha govt has brought a state action plan on climate change (SAPCC) in which various aspects have been pointed out such as agriculture, coastal area risk management, energy, fishery, health, industry management, mining, transport, urban development.
Margaret Wahlstrom, UN special representative of the secretary-general for disaster risk reduction stated at an event in 2019 that “today Odisha is a global leader in disaster management and risk reduction” and also stated that Odisha’s example gives important lessons on strengthening disaster risk governance.
