Cyclone lessons for Bengal from Odisha
A day after West Bengal was ravaged by monster cyclone Amphan, leaving a trail of devastation in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was quick to lend a hand to the neighbouring state. A contingent of 500 personnel including firefighters and the state’s Disaster Rapid Action Force has already been dispatched to Bengal to help restore emergency services and relief measures. Naveen has assured all support to his counterpart Mamata Banerjee because he knows what it means to be battling natural calamities.
Barely a couple of years after his entry into politics, Odisha was battered by the super cyclone of 1999 that upended the entire state in a tragedy unheard of. Even as the clueless Congress government was struggling to bring its administration back on its feet in Bhubaneswar, the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, sent in a team of firefighters with mechanical equipment to clear the roads. A good 15 years later, in 2014, when Cyclone Hudhud hit AP, it was Naveen’s turn to reciprocate and he moved a 500-man team led by Fire Services chief Nageswar Rao. From a state that was pushed 20 years back in time by the super cyclone, Odisha has built its disaster readiness brick by brick and turned into a colossus of sorts. Each of its 314 blocks now has a fire station and all the 5,700-odd fire-fighters are trained in disaster relief and restoration.
When IMD upgraded Amphan into a Category 5 cyclone earlier this week, the Odisha administration was ready with a plan to evacuate over a million people but it was not required in the end. Its handling of cyclone Fani last year brought the state international praise and Amphan, like Naveen had wanted, has passed with ‘Zero Casualty’. As people in Bengal begin to pick up the pieces of their lives, it’s necessary for states to extend their support. But it’s equally necessary that Mamata take a leaf out of Naveen’s book for disaster management. With climate change impacting weather systems, natural calamities are here to stay and it’s better to be prepared.