ABSTRACT
Climate change and global warming have changed almost the nature and behaviour of North Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea a lot, as witnessed from the series of cyclones with tremendous intensity, havoc wind speed and huge rainfall since the last decade of the century. On average around 2 to 4 tropical cyclones impact India every year, while most of these tropical cyclones impact the east coast of Indian states of West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu. The West Coast of India is less prone to cyclones with one cyclone out of 2 to 4 hits the west coast with majority of them attacking the state of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. In the 1976, Arabian Sea cyclone made landfall in Saurashtra on June 3. The coast was lashed by wind of up to 175 kmph, damaging 51 villages killing 70 persons and causing damage worth Rs 3 crore. That was the last major cyclone in over four decades. Since then, cyclones have returned to India’s west coast with a vengeance. Since 2019, India has recorded eight cyclones, five in the Arabian sea alone, while five cyclones formed in year 2020 with three making landfall over India.
Very often these cyclonic hazards had turned in to disasters affecting the life, livelihood and property of the people. Strong wind, torrential rain, flooding and unusual storm surges accompanied with the cyclones cause severe devastations with the destruction of dwellings, damage to infrastructure and standing crops besides loss of life along the track of its movement and adjacent areas. This study shows Coastal region’s exposure to these extreme events, people’s perception and human response, adaptations, its risk mitigation, management and preparedness has undergone a sea change in the twenty-first century keeping at pace with the scientific innovations and international guidelines.
