Making India Disaster Ready

NATURAL CALAMITIES HAVE BECOME A WAY OF LIFE, BUT THE INDIAN INFRASTRUCTURE IS YET TO BECOME RESILIENT.

- Ajita Shashidhar And Sonal Khetarpal

BALABHADRA Panda, a priest at the Jagannath Temple in Puri, Odisha, anxiously waits to escort pilgrims into the sanctum sanctorum of the 10th century temple. A month after the devastating Cyclone Fani hit Odisha, there is visible desperation on his face as the inflow of pilgrims has dipped by over 60 per cent and so has his earnings. “Pilgrims have literally stopped visiting the temple,” he says. Prior to the cyclone, Panda comfortably earned 1,0001,500 a day as dakshina from pilgrims. Today, earning even 500 is a struggle. Bada Danda, the road which leads to the temple, usually teeming with people, bears a desolate look post the cyclone.

Puri’s Beach Road is deserted too. The numerous hotels which dot the road are dilapidated and not operational anymore. The hotel industry in the state has incurred losses of about 500 crore and over 5,000 people have lost their livelihood.

The area has not had power since Cyclone Fani struck in early May. In the first week of June, power supply has been restored to just 20 per cent of Puri district. On the beach sits Ganesh Behera, who earns his livelihood by clicking instant photographs of visitors on the beach. Since the cyclone, Behera has been struggling to earn even 100 a day as tourists have vanished. In addition, after living in a cyclone shelter for about 10 days, he has to rebuild his home. The government has promised to give him 95,000 to reconstruct his home and he is anxiously waiting for the money to be credited into his account. “I have so far got only 2,000, 50 kg of rice and a tarpaulin sheet to cover my broken roof,” he says.