Lok Sabha Question No. 1619 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-12-08
Subject: Damage due to Cyclones
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Jayanta Kumar Roy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1619

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 8 TH  DECEMBER, 2021

## DAMAGE DUE TO CYCLONES

## 1619.       DR. JAYANTA KUMAR ROY:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Ministry is aware that West Bengal is most vulnerable to climate risk and the Bay  of  Bengal  region  was  struck  by  innumerable  severe  cyclonic  storms,  due  to  which people living in the State faced immense hardship and if so, the details thereof
- (b) whether West Bengal coast witnessed landfalls of two extremely severe cyclones 'Bulbul' and 'Amphan' causing severe damage and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether any steps have been taken by the Government to find a lasting solution for the people living in vulnerable areas; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a)-(b)    Yes, Sir. The Ministry is well aware of the hazards posed by landfalling cyclones along the east & west coasts of India, including West Bengal and the hardship faced by the people dwelling in these regions.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has prepared a map of the cyclone hazard proneness of the coastal districts of India based on the  frequency  of  cyclones,  their  intensity,  actual/estimated  maximum  wind  strength, Probable  Maximum  Storm  Surge  (PMSS)  associated  with  the  cyclones  and  Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) for all the districts along the coastline as presented in Fig. 1. Ninety-six districts including 72 districts touching the coast and 24 districts not touching the  coast,  but  lying  within  100  km  from  the  coast  have  been  classified  based  on  their cyclone  hazard  proneness.  Out  of  96  districts,  12  are  very  highly  prone,  41  are  highly prone, 30 are moderately prone and the remaining 13 are less prone. Twelve very highly prone  districts  include  South  and  North  24  Praganas,  Medinipur,  and  Kolkata  of West Bengal ,  Balasore,  Bhadrak,  Kendrapara,  and  Jagatsinghpur  districts  of Odisha ,  Nellore, Krishna, and east Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh and Yanam of Puducherry .

- (b) Yes.  In recent years West Bengal witnessed landfall of two cyclonic storms viz. (1) Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Bulbul (Crossed West Bengal Coast as a Severe Cyclonic Storm close  to  SunderbanDhanchi  forest  near  21.55°N/88.5°E  during  2030  to  2330  IST  of 9 th November, 2019 with maximum sustained wind speed of 110-120 kmph gusting to 135 kmph) and (2) Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan (Crossed West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts as a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm across Sundarbans, near lat.21.65°N/long. 88.30°E during 1530-1730 IST, of 20 th May, 2020 with maximum sustained wind speed of 155-165 gusting to 185 kmph).

The losses & death toll due to the Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Bulbul and Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan (as  per  available  media  reports  and  the  reports  from  various  State Government agencies) are given in Table-1

| Table-1   | Table-1                                                                                                                       | Table-1                                                                                                                                                  | Table-1    |
|-----------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|
| Year      | Cyclonic Storm                                                                                                                | Damage / Losses                                                                                                                                          | Death toll |
| 2019      | Very Severe Cyclonic Storm BUL BUL over the Bay of Bengal, 5th - 11th November 2019; crossed west Bengal - Bangladesh coasts. | In West Bengal damages to about 1 lakh houses and standing crops. In Odisha, there has been extensive damage to standing crops in over 2 lakhs hectares. | 41         |
| 2020      | Super cyclone AMPHAN over the Bay of Bengal , 16th - 21st May 2020; crossed West Bengal - Bangladesh coasts.                  | Extensive damage in Gangetic West Bengal including Kolkata city.                                                                                         | 98         |

- (c)-(d) IMD under MoES is responsible for providing early warnings w.r.t. cyclonic disturbances developing  over  the  north  Indian  Ocean  region  and  crossing  Indian  coasts.  IMD  has developed a well defined mechanisms/technology for early warning on cyclones so as to enable disaster managers to minimise loss of life and damage to property.IMD has one of the  best  forecasting  systems  for  predicting  tropical  cyclones  using  high  resolution advanced mathematical models(including global, regional and cyclone specific models)and  a  suite  of  quality  observations.  MoES  has  introduced  ensemble  prediction systems  viz.  Global  Ensemble  Forecasting  System  (GEFS)  and  NCMRWF  Ensemble Prediction System (NEPS) for forecasting of cyclones.  IMD utilizes an array of various models  including  global,  regional  and  cyclone  specific  models  for  forecasting  genesis, track, intensity, landfall and associated adverse weather like heavy rainfall, gale wind and storm  surge..  IMD  also  has  rich  experience  of  more  than  100  years  in  tropical  cyclone prediction  and  has  many  trained  and  experienced  scientists  specialized  in  forecasting. IMD also has a very effective Decision Support System for analysing various observations at a single platform and predicting track and intensity of cyclones as well as the adverse weather like heavy rain and wind.

IMD uses a suite of quality observations from Satellites, RADARs and conventional & automatic weather stations for monitoring of cyclones developing over the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. It includes INSAT 3D, 3DR satellites, Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) along  the  coast  and  coastal  automated  weather  stations  (AWS),  automatic  rain  gauges (ARGs), meteorological buoys and ships.

The Cyclone Warning Division (CWD) at India Meteorological Department (IMD), New Delhi acts as a Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre for monitoring, predicting and issuing warning for tropical cyclones developing over North Indian Ocean. It also carries out  research  on  track,  intensity,  landfall  and  adverse  weather  associated  with  cyclones. IMD has three Area Cyclone Warning Centres at Chennai, Kolkata & Mumbai and four Cyclone Warning Centres at Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam  for  carrying  out  operational  forecasting  and  warning  activities  at  state level and to carry out related research & development activities.

During  recent  years,  IMD  has  consistently  accurately  predicted  cyclones  like  Phailin (2013),  HudHud  (2014),  Vardha  (2016),  Mekunu  (2018),  Sagar  (2018),  Titli  (2018), Luban  (2018),  Fani  (2019),  Hikaa  (2019),  Bulbul  (2019),  Amphan,  Nisarga&Nivaar (2020),  Tauktae,  YAAS,  Gulab&Shaheen  (2021)  thereby  helping  disaster  managers  to minimise loss of lives to less than 100 due to any landfalling tropical cyclone in recent years.  IMD  has  also  earned  worldwide  accolades  in  the  field  of  cyclone  forecasting including appreciations from United Nations, World Meteorological Organisation, Hon ' ble President and Prime Ministers of India, Parliamentary Standing Committee, etc. IMD is at par with the leading centres of the worldfor tropical cyclone  monitoring and forecasting.

National  Disaster  Management  Authority  (NDMA)  prepared  revised  National  Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) in November, 2019. This Plan covers all aspects of disaster risk  reduction  and  management.  The NDMP provides a framework and direction to the government  agencies  for  all  phases  of  the  disaster  management  cycle  in  a  time-bound manner.  The  Plan  inter-alia,  addresses  mitigation,  risk  reduction,  preparedness  and response  aspects  for  various  disasters  including  Cyclones  under  six  thematic  areas  (i) Understanding  Risk,  (ii)  Inter-Agency  Coordination,  (iii)  Investing  in  Disaster  Risk Reduction  (DRR) -Structural  Measures,  (iv)  Investing  in  DRR -Non-Structural Measures, (v) Capacity Development and (vi) Climate Change Risk Management.

Also  to  inform,  educate  and  to  make  the  people  aware  about  preparedness  before, precautions  and  safeguards  during  a  disaster  and  post  disaster  scenarios,  NDMA  runs awareness  generation  campaigns  on  various  disasters  including  on  flood  and  cyclones from  time  to  time  throughout  the  country,  including  in  coastal  states  through  print  and electronic media, including social media. These campaigns aim at saving lives, livestock and livelihood to the maximum extent.

Towards vulnerability assessment & resilience building, the Government of India (GoI) has initiated the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) across eight coastal states,  with  a  view  to  address  cyclone  risks  in  the  country.  The  overall  objective  of  the Project  is  to  undertake  suitable  structural  and  non-structural  measures  to  mitigate  the effects of cyclones in the coastal states and UTs of India. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the aegis of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is implementing the Project in coordination with participating State Governments and the National Institute for Disaster Management (NIDM).The Project has identified 13 cyclone prone States and Union Territories (UTs), with varying levels of vulnerability. The main objective of the NCRMP is  to  reduce  vulnerability  of  coastal  communities  to  cyclone  and  other  hydro meteorological hazards through;

- (i) Improved early warning dissemination systems.
- (ii) Enhanced capacity of local communities to respond to disasters.
- (iii) Improved access to emergency shelter, evacuation, and protection against wind storms, flooding and storm surge in high areas.
- (iv) Strengthening DRM capacity at central, state and local levels in order to enable mainstreaming of risk mitigation measures into the overall development agenda.

Also,  under  this  programme,  there  are  efforts  to  provide  a  more  precise  quantitative assessment  of  the  likely  impacts  of  cyclones  over  the  coastal  belt,  via  a  Web-based decision support system called Web -DCRA (Dynamic composite Risk Atals). This has been developed under the joint efforts with the India Meteorological Department / MoES &  the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP)  of  National  Disaster Management  Authority  (NDMA),  MHA,  for  utilization  in  the  Cyclone  prone  coastal states.

Apart from NCRMP, the GoI also has set up various committees to develop processes & procedures  for  Hazard  resilience  development.  For  example,  there  is  a  Task  Force functioning  on ' Cyclone  Resilient  Robust  Electricity  Transmission  and  Distribution infrastructure  in  the  Coastal  areas ' to  come  out  with  practical  solutions  for  Cyclone Resilient  Robust  Electricity  Transmission  and  Distribution  (T&D)  infrastructure  in  the Coastal areas of the country.

The  Bureau  of  Indian  Standards  (BIS)  is  also  working  towards  the  design  aspects  of cyclone resilient infra-structures as well as cyclone shelters over the coastal regions.

Similarly, the recently launched Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is planning to strengthen the linkages between 'Early-warning decision support and coastal Infrastructure systems for India ' .  The  CDRI is a multi-stakeholder global partnership of national governments, UN agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks and financing mechanisms, the private sector, and academic and knowledge institutions. CDRI was  launched  by  Hon  Prime  Minister  at  the  Climate  Action  Summit  in  New  York  in September 2019. At present, CDRI has 24 countries and 7 international organizations as members.

## Annexure-I

Fig.1:  Cyclone  hazard  prone  districts  of  India  based  on  frequency  of  total  cyclones,  total  severe cyclones, actual/estimated maximum wind strength, PMSS associated with the cyclones and PMP for all districts

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