Cyclonic Disasters and Resilience: An Empirical Study on South Asian Coastal Regions

The Bay of Bengal is prone to tropical cyclones and storm surges as a result of its location, and many of the mostly poor people living along the coastal regions of South Asia lose their lives almost every year. These disasters have been particularly devastating and have caused serious damage. During the past five decades, the low-lying coastal and offshore islands have experienced a tragic history of 50 severe cyclones and storm surges, with more than one million victims dead or missing. People accepted and waited for the next disaster as they had no alternatives. Members of the poor families who survived the disasters experienced hard times recovering from damage and the loss of their loved ones. After disasters, epidemic diseases arise in the affected areas. Many of the people in distress are also deprived of public services. Providing all sorts of assistance and emergency health preparedness are most essential to overcome such a situation. The causes of these huge casualties have been mainly: (1) the high population density of costal settlements, (2) inadequate cyclone shelters in the disaster risk areas, (3) lack of awareness of the disaster risk by the vulnerable population, (4) deterministic attitudes of people who accept disasters as “fate”, (5) houses that are weakly constructed and (6) underdeveloped central awareness programmes and weather forecast systems.

This book is based on an empirical study presenting a timeline analysis of major cyclones and their impacts and consequent losses through the super-cyclones in the disaster-prone coastal regions of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This study also investigates resilience mechanisms based on early warning systems, technology applications including GIS and remote sensing, best practices, success stories and case studies that can be used for effective cyclone management and development of a resilience mechanism among coastal communities.

Ashutosh Mohanty, an International Researcher, professor, mentor, practitioner and having 20 years of academic and professional experience in more than 17 countries different capacities on the fields of Holistic Disaster Risk Management, Climate Change Resilience strategies,  Emergency Policy and Risk Governance, Strategic Hazard Mapping and Response, Micro Plastic Solution, Integrated  City Resilience  Planning, Waste Management  & Sustainability, Human and Institutional capacity development, Multi hazard Early warning Systems, Highland Agriculture, EIA, Public and Pandemic Health management, Humanitarian Emergency Response, Social Protection & Legal implications, Water Resource Management, Urban Environmental Management in the Asia, US and Europe. Presently is serving as Dean Research and International Affairs Madhyanchal Professional University, Faculty of Science and Technology. He also serves as Adjunct Professor, Disaster Management/ Management Department, Odisha State Open University, Govt. of Odisha, Sambalpur, Odisha, also Resource person & member of The Consortium for Capacity Building, CCB, INSTAAR/ University of Colorado, USA and Co-Principal Investigator, National Geographic Explore grant USA, (2020-21) on Marine Micro Plastic Management. He is selected as Team Leader & PI for India for CSIRO-Australia on Global Plastic Pollution Survey (2022). He served as Director of Disaster Management and Climate Change, Shoolini University, with Interdisciplinary expertise to teach PhD and Masters Students and prior to this he was with Truman Graduate School-Public Affairs, Mongolia International University. He did his PhD in Urban Environmental Risk Governance under mentorship and Research support from Dr. Michael H. Glantz, Director, Consortium for Capacity Building (CCB), INSTAAR, University of Colorado, USA and MSc. in Urban Environmental Risk Management at Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand under USAID/RUDO Fellowship, MA in Public Administration, Utkal University, India. He led numbers of River Basin programme including Amudariya Basin (Tajikistan, Afghanistan), Indus (India, Pakistan and Afghanistan), Ganges and Brahmaputra (India, Bhutan and Bangladesh) etc.  He served as visiting faculty for Master's studies at international humanitarian and social work programme, Department of Christian Social Work, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic as well as Beijing Normal University, faculty of GeoSciences (2019). Served as Regional Capacity Development Officer at International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal and coordinated Research-based University network called as Himalayan University Consortium, HUC for 8 Himalayan Countries (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, China, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Myanmar) of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH), Region). Being International Professor (Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change) & University Export committee Head/Lead Researcher developed course curriculum for 7 universities in 5 countries including Post Graduate Disaster Management courses for Odisha State Open University, Govt of Odisha. He is associated with international research Centres like; University Consortium for Atmospheric Research, USA, National Centre for Atmospheric Research, USA, FK- Norway, SIDA, CSIRO-Australia, United Nation University, National Science Foundation, USA and ECODIT-USA. He published more than 22 International SCI/Scopus Indexed Scientific Research papers/ journals and 2 Books and many under process internationally.  Coordinated, hosted and led more than 180 Skill based Modular Trainings and capacity development programmes with Government Officials, Community Leaders, NGOs & INGOs, Training of Trainers (ToT) Professionals. 

Anupama Dubey is an assistant professor at the Institute of Public Enterprise. She is a post-graduate of Allahabad University and holds M.Phil and Ph.D. degrees in the area of waterconservation and management from the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University. She has experience of more than ten years in teaching, research and training. She has been on faculty of geography at Delhi University and also has worked as senior research analyst at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT, Delhi) on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Project of the Ministry of Human Resource Development). She has wide experience in heading and contributing to various research and consultancy projects funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR, India); University Grant Commission (UGC); Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB); National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD, India); International Developmental Research Centre (IDRC, Canada); World Health Organisation; and University of North Carolina (USA). Her papers have been published and presented in national and international journals and conferences. She has chaired national and international conferences and organized conferences and workshops at the national and international levels. She has authored two books published by Springer (Singapore) and is an editor of a book by the Academic Foundation (New Delhi, India).

R. B. Singh is Professor and Head in Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He is the first Indian and second Asian to be elected secretary-general and treasurer of the International Geographical Union. At present, he is chair of the Research Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)–Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Government of India. He is also a member of the International Science Council (ISC) Scientific Committee, elected president of the Earth System Science Section of the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA). Earlier, he was awarded a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research (JSPS) Fellowship and has visited more than 40 countries. He counts 15 books, 36 edited volumes and more than 240 research papers in journals. He has supervised 36 Ph.Ds. and 81 M.Phils students. UNESCO/ISSC (Paris) awarded him the Research and Study Grants Award in Social and Human Sciences. He was also awarded a prestigious Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellowship at Hiroshima in 2013 and several travel fellowships, and he has received other forms of support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), among others.