The cyclone.....the victims.....the despair......
Anger and Gloom are the words that best describe the
sentiments of the victims of cyclonic storm that struck Orissa on 29th
October. Gloom, because of man’s inability to prevent such elemental
fury, and anger, because of the system’s failure to counter such
happenings. Apart from the media coverage of the extent of the devastation
and the rescue operations, the victims’ backlash at the state and
centre’s establishment has received an equal attention from one and all.
It is anger against the government for having failed to reach the affected
area with proper relief.
Such a scenario puts us back-to-square-one. A layman
might think about the rumpus and hullabaloo created over India,
jettisoning into the 21st century, armed with all the advanced
technological armoury with it, but lacking the basic organisational
infrastructure in place! According to a disaster management expert,
working with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies, there are only 23 specially-built cyclone shelters in Orissa,
built by German aid. The failure is all the more explicable because with
the advanced tools like satellites, the cyclone was reliably forecasted
two days ahead. The Cyclone Warning Dissemination System (CWDS), developed
by Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre, makes use of INSAT satellites
capability to broadcast direct to the community. However, reports from the
coastal districts of Orissa suggest that though the fishermen were
informed of the cyclone, no information was forthcoming about its
destructive nature.
Development and timely utilisation of disaster
management techniques using GIS and remote sensing are essential for these
coastal regions. Cyclone prediction model that can predict the severity of
an impeding storm atleast 12 hrs in advance has been developed by IIT, can
be made use of. And above all, a full machinery should always be in order
for pre-disaster evacuation and post-disaster relief work, with mock
drills once in a while. All these can be monitored through a base control
station.
A strong case for GIS-based disaster management system!
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