Cyclone hazard mitigation
Topic: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in India · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Natural Hazards and Disasters: Causes, Consequences and Management"
Meaning
Cyclones are fairly predictable, so their damage can be cut sharply even though they cannot be stopped. The main tools are:
- Satellite tracking and early warnings, so people can be moved out in time.
- Cyclone shelters, where people can stay safe.
- Embankments and dykes, which are walls that hold back seawater.
- Shelterbelts, which are rows of trees planted to slow the wind.
Most cyclone deaths come from the storm surge, which is seawater pushed inland by strong winds and low pressure. That makes evacuation the key step. The National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project is run by NDMA with World Bank support. Phase I (from 2011) covered Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, and Phase II (from 2015) added six more states. It funds warning systems, multipurpose shelters, evacuation roads, bridges and saline embankments, which are walls that keep salt water off farmland.
Example
The Odisha super cyclone of 1999 killed about 10,000 people. When Cyclone Phailin hit Odisha in 2013, about a million people were moved to safety in advance, and few died.