Cyclone Dana pain adds to woes of Satabhaya climate refugees
KENDRAPARA: Radhika Mallik, a 27-year-old mother of two, is in despair as cyclone Dana that hit Kendrapara coast late on Thursday night left her thatched house in ruins.
After the winds died down and rains stopped on Friday, Mallik returned to her fragile thatched home at Bagapatia in Rajnagar block from the nearby cyclone shelter only to find it battered and broken. However, it is not the first time that Mallik has endured the fury of a calamity. For the entire resilient community of Satabhaya, rehabilitated in Bagapatia settlement due to coastal erosion, disaster has become an unending game of hide and seek. Satabhaya panchayat under Rajnagar block is worst hit by sea erosion. Once a cluster of seven villages, only a small portion of it now stands while six villages have disappeared into the sea.
The state government rehabilitated around 571 families of Satabhaya at Bagapatia in 2018 in view of the depleting coastline. Around 150 more families relocated to the place subsequently, leaving only a small population of the community at the vulnerable shoreline.
Cyclone Dana, however, has dealt another blow to many of these families who have not been able to get a piece of land or financial assistance for pucca house from the state government. Incessant rain triggered by the storm also caused severe waterlogging in the settlement colony, a low-lying area, on Friday morning.
“Though we were taken to the cyclone shelter and provided cooked food for two days, the administration is silent on where we will live after the temporary facility is closed,” said Dharanidhar Mallick (31) of the village.
Satabhaya sarpanch Prasanna Kumar Parida said apart from Bagapatia, another village with a population of 120 was marooned following heavy rains under the impact of the cyclone.
Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo rushed to Bagapatia to take stock of the situation on the day and directed officials to pump out water from the rehabilitation colony. Tidal waves also transgressed weak saline embankments at several strategic points inundating crops in Praharajpur, Olasahi, Sasanapeta, Naukana, Gupti, Bheda, Talachua, Rangani, Suniti, Amarabati, Gumara, Rajendranagar, Pravati, Banipala, Batighar, Badatubi, Sanatubi and other villages of the district.
Incessant rain after the landfall of Dana forced several affected villagers to stay a few more days in cyclone shelters.Improved disaster prevention measures including an improved forecasting and warning system, cyclone shelters, and embankments ensured the success of the ‘zero casualty’ mission of the administration, said district emergency officer Ashok Das.
Kendrapara sub-collector Rabindra Kumar Pradhan said rescue and relief measures were expedited in the district following the storm, while the administration has also decided to come up with a plan to check inundation of Bagapatia.