What the world can from learn from Odisha, India’s most disaster-ready state

By Shruti Kedia and Sourav Roy

Learning its lessons from the super-cyclone of 1999 which claimed 10,000 lives in Odisha, the eastern state has, over the years, emerged as a role model in disaster preparedness. With decades of positive intervention by the government, civil society groups, and NGOs, the state has received praise from numerous national and international organisations, including the United Nations.

In 2013, when cyclone Phailin rattled the Indian coasts, the government of Odisha undertook the largest ever evacuation, shifting 11 lakh people into safety. The state stood strong as rains lashed the landscape, and death toll was contained to 21. Next year when cyclone Hudhud hit Odisha, the death toll was contained to just two.

“The natural disasters we get in Odisha are of different intensity. If we keep stepping on a thorn again and again, year after year, the toe skin becomes thick; and we have to find a solution for it,” Tathagata Satpathy, Member of Parliament from Odisha’s Dhenkanal constituency, tells us.

The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) was established in 1999, much before the Disaster Management Act was passed in 2005, and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was constituted in 2001. OSDMA was the first disaster management authority centre established in India, or perhaps the world, given its scale of operations.

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