Any discourse on Cuddalore is incomplete without a mention of the trail of destruction the numerous natural disasters have left in the coastal district. However, a breeze of change seems to be wafting. The green shoots of hope owe largely to the adept handling of cyclone Nivar by the district officials.
In a candid talk with TNIE, Cuddalore collector Chandra Sekhar Sakhamuri recounts the meticulous planning, detailed surveys, and the exemplary commitment of the State machinery to pull off a miracle by curtailing the extent of damage and managing zero life loss.
“We cannot surrender because Cuddalore is disaster prone. What we can do is learn to tackle it with efficient planning, ground-level implementation, and people participation,” he says. Excerpts from the interview...
What makes Cuddalore a disaster-prone region?
The district’s terrain is perhaps one of the major reasons for flooding. Near the coast and the rivers, the land elevation is 1 meter below Mean Sea Level (MSL), leading to backwaters inundating the district. The elevation in the interior parts is only 1.5 meter above the MSL. This makes draining of water into sea difficult. Further, the mouths of five major rivers — Thenpennaiyar, Gedilam, Paravanar, Vellar, and Coleroon — draining into the Bay of Bengal lies in this region. These natural factors have been causing floods and wreaking havoc in the region for several years now.
What is being done to
mitigate this natural drawback all the while putting in place a proactive water management mechanism?
The district has a rich repository of waterbodies. The Public Works Department manages 228 tanks, while the Rural Development Department looks after 2,807 water bodies. Over the years, many measures have been taken to desilt waterbodies under the Kudimaramathu Scheme. Desilting at the Wellington reservoir — a dam with 2,580 mcft capacity — is under detailed study.
Works worth `120 crore at the Perumal tank are awaiting the government approval. These measures have benefited thousands of farmers and villages. We are devising ways to prevent seawater intrusion inland to protect farms and water resources. In the last five years, we have built nine out of 12 check dams sanctioned by the State government.
Cuddalore’s tryst with cyclones and floods have become a yearly affair. What is being done on that front?
We started preparing for the monsoon rains in August. We created 19 inter-departmental zonal teams for micro-mapping and tracking monsoon. We also formed teams at municipality and panchayat-levels to ensure grassroots too were battle ready. This helped us identify 278 vulnerable locations, including 92 highly-vulnerable. Evacuation points and routes were mapped for all the 278 locations. This meticulous planning was instrumental in curtailing the extent of damage.
Usually, the disaster management teams carry out a demo for the people from vulnerable regions. This year we made sure that mock drills with the participation of the stakeholders were conducted in September. These measures made us all battle ready. Another stroke of brilliance was stocking relief materials at pit stops in vulnerable regions. Earlier, such materials were kept at PWD or block offices. This helped us save time, and we hit the ground running to effect swift rescue.
Did the drills lead to a better coordination among the SDRF & NDRF teams, volunteers, and the villagers?
Yes. While the 210-personnel reinforcement from the SDRF and 6 teams of NDRF augmented our strength, the fresh arrivals too hit the ground running. They managed to understand the topography of district by arriving well in advance on November 22. We alerted 3,240 first respondents from the villages to be prepared for exigencies in October. We positioned 430 responders at highly-vulnerable regions; 2,780 were deployed to manage livestock and tree pruning works. We had assigned 356 swimmers from the fishing hamlets to help with rescue works. All in all, we worked with clockwork precision.
The district recorded no fatality; tell us about the measures that were planned while adhering to COVID protocols?
We first alerted the fishermen to berth their boats away from the coast. We started evacuating people on November 24. The existing 42-cyclone relief centres, multipurpose evacuation halls, along with 191 temporary relief camps we arranged could accommodate 1.95 lakh people. However, with a view to adhering to the COVID protocol, the capacity of each facility was reduced. This made increasing the numbers of the camp necessary. We raised the numbers to 441, and housed 52,266 people by November 26 morning by maintaining highest order of social distancing. Adequate provisions were stocked at each camp. We also created Rapid Response Teams of 400 medical professionals and dispatched them to 50-odd camps across the district.
Why do you say implementation was as efficient as planning?
While we planned it to near perfection, the implementation on the ground was swift and efficient. We had envisaged a power outage situation and arranged 285 generators. We kept 10,000 poles, 2,000 conductors and 2,000 additional electricity board workers on standby to attend to power failure. A police team was deployed every 10-km to attend to emergencies. This came in handy as 331 trees got uprooted between 6 pm on November 25 and 6 am on November 26. These police and fire teams swiftly cleared the path to allow unhindered passage. We installed HAM radio control rooms to ensure seamless connectivity. We called in two operators from Chennai and six from Bengaluru to handle the equipment.
What is the extent of damage?
There was no life loss or significant livestock damage due to Nivar. Being able to keep people confined to their homes was the trick here. The 17,158 families camped at the 441 camps across the district were provided with basic necessities like rice, oil, and clothing. As far as damages are concerned, 655 huts and 155 concrete houses were partially damaged; 101 huts were fully damaged.
Did raising awareness help?
The toll free and control room numbers were announced and widely advertised. Moreover, we aired vital information off FM 107.8 MHz from the collectorate. All stakeholders were made abreast of the situation and the role they had to play. The planning, implementation, coordination, and cooperation all were instrumental in pulling off the lofty ideal we had set ourselves.
You were on the field overseeing the works... Tell us about the cooperation and support from the State government during the crisis?
The Chief Minister Office was monitoring the situation continuously, and extended full support 24x7. The offices of the Chief Secretary & the Commissioner of Revenue Administration kept sharing cyclone bulletins in real time. They kept issuing guidance on cyclone shelters. Mobilisation of affected people to camps was closely monitored. The visit of the monitoring officer was very helpful for the district administration. I have to mention that the tireless effort and the selfless devotion of all inter-departmental teams helped us a lot in achieving what we have.