NEW DELHI: As different cyclones took around 300 lives in India over the last three years, the eastern state of West Bengal topped the list in terms of causality followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Studies show that India is the most vulnerable to natural hazards like tropical cyclones. 13 cyclones hit the Indian coasts and made landfall between January 2020 and June 2023. Out of these, nine cyclones emerged from the eastern basin of the Bay of Bengal while the rest of them were from the western basin of the Arabian Sea.
The analysis based on the historical dataset (1819–2019) of Tropical Cyclones over the North Indian Ocean (NIO) also claims that the four coastal states (Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal) and one union territory (Pondicherry) on the east coast frequently face cyclonic storm than other coastal parts of India.
There was only one ‘super cyclone’ Amphan that hit the eastern coast in 2020 and three ‘Extremely Super Cyclone’ categories.
According to the National Disaster Management Plan, 2019, there is a 7516 km long coastline in India that is prone to cyclone-related disasters.
Moreover, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has carried out studies and mapped 96 districts based on hazard criteria due to cyclones. These 72 districts on the coast and 24 districts off the coast, lying within 100 km from the coast, have been classified as prone to cyclones.
Between 2020 and 2022, 299 deaths were recorded in different states and union territories. In 2020, there were 119 deaths followed by 174 deaths in 2021 and six deaths in 2022.
As per yearly state-wise distribution, West Bengal tops in terms of deaths in 2020 with a tally of 86 deaths and followed by only two deaths in subsequent years. In 2021, Gujarat (79) tops in terms of human causality followed by Maharashtra (56).
West Bengal (88) stood top of the table in terms of total deaths in the past three years followed by Gujarat (79) and Maharashtra (62). The other states to have reported deaths due to cyclones are Tamil Nadu (18), Andhra Pradesh (16), Kerala (9), Karnataka (8), Telangana and Jharkhand (3), Bihar and Puducherry registered one death each.
The Minister of Earth Sciences, Kiran Rijiju said in the parliament that number of deaths due to cyclones has reduced below a hundred in recent years.
He further said IMD has demonstrated its capability to provide early warning for cyclones with high precision. As a result, the vulnerable population gets evacuated from the damage-prone areas in a timely manner thereby reducing the human death toll to a bare minimum.
The government of India has initiated the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) with a view to addressing cyclone risks in the country.