As per the Global Environmental Negotiation journal, if the sea level rises 1 meter from the current level, 1,70,000 hectare of cultivable land in the state is likely to submerge.
Let’s go back to 1999 when Odisha faced one of the greatest cyclonic disasters ever recorded – the Super Cyclone also called the 1999 Odisha cyclone. Originating about 550 km east of the Andaman Island, it hit the state at a wind speed of approximately 300 kmph and affected 14 coastal districts, 28 coastal towns and two major cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Nearly ten thousand lost their lives in the cyclone, and 13 million were affected by it.
I was just 9 years old when it hit the state, having no knowledge of what climate change or any of the terms related to extreme climatic events meant. But I can still remember it, and the destruction it caused. It was in this way that I first became aware of the impact of our environment on our well being.
I have lived in the state for years now, and I don’t think it will be wrong to say that these extreme climate events have shaped my life in myriad ways, With nearly one-third of cyclones of the east coast hitting its coastal belt, the state and its residents have grown accustomed to witnessing the vicissitudes of climate-changing.
Witnessing these events since childhood became a major motivation for me to become a researcher and eventually to pursue my PhD in climate change. Presently, I work in the broad areas of climate change economics and its impact on human health, agriculture, energy etc. Simultaneously, my research also aims to provide policy suggestions and adaptation and mitigation strategies to minimise its impact.
Odisha: The State Most Prone To Natural Disasters
Of the last 105 years, Odisha has been declared disaster-affected for 95 years: floods have occurred for 50 years, droughts for 32 years and cyclones have struck the state for 11 years. It has experienced around 952 small and big cyclones and 451 tornadoes between 1891 and 1970. From 1901 to 1981 there were 380 cyclones, of which 272 resulted from depressions in the Bay of Bengal. Twenty-nine of these cyclones were devastating. A study of the effects of natural disasters reveals that between 1963 and 1999, Odisha experienced 13 major disasters, which killed 22,228 people and rendered more than 34 lakhs of people homeless. Cyclone Fani, which hit Odisha in 2019, caused damage worth over 9000 crores in the state, devastating as many as 20,367 villages and affecting 1.6 crore people.
Lately, there has also been an increase in the frequency of cyclones largely due to a rise in sea surface temperature (SST) caused by climate change. Research, in fact. points to there being a direct positive relationship between rising in SST and rise in tropical cyclonic activities in the seawater affecting coastal areas. Approximately 30 per cent of the world’s tropical cyclones form in the western north pacific region due to oceanic warm water of 30 degree Celsius.
Why Odisha Is Vulnerable To Cyclonic Activity
Studying SST data for the Bay of Bengal, we can now confirm the positive relationship between SST rise and tropical cyclone frequency and associated human life loss in India.
Another reason why Odisha is particularly vulnerable to cyclonic activity due to its geography and topography. In the Bay of Bengal region, tropical cyclones tend to travel upward in the northwest direction, due to the shape of the Indian sub-continent and storms usually spin in the anti-clockwise direction.
Because states on the east coast of the country have relatively flatter land, as compared to the west coast, it doesn’t allow for much deflection of the wind. Moreover, Odisha lies at a place in India’s coastline where it curves, making its location an easy target for storms and cyclones.
In addition, the Bay of Bengal also gets cyclones formed over the Pacific ocean, where there is no landmass that is big enough to stop them. The Bay of Bengal also happens to be much warmer than the Arabian Sea with many more storms brewing over it, compared to the Arabian sea.
Since the 1999 cyclone, a lot has changed in Odisha. Improved disaster preparedness, better weather forecast and early evacuation have meant that the state has been able to reduce damage caused due to cyclones. consistently reduced damage caused by cyclones throughout the country.
However, the state continues to weather storms and cyclones with property loss due to these events steadily growing every year for the last few decades due to climate change.
As per the Global Environmental Negotiation journal, if the sea level rises 1 meter from the current level, 1,70,000 hectare of cultivable land in the state is likely to submerge.
And even though Odisha was one of the first states to have its draft on Climate Change Action Plan and Disaster Preparedness Action Plan, the plan’s implementation at ground level still requires a lot of concrete action.
Keeping these factors in mind, it is important that the government and policymakers pay attention to the issue of climate change and devise suitable adaptation and coping mechanisms so that better solutions and developmental strategies can be implemented in the state, to avoid any preventable damage.
By Prasanta Patri