DISASTER

A RAVAGED REGION

After the killer cyclone, disease and famine stalk coastal Orissa.

SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAY
in Orissa

COASTAL Orissa remained grim two weeks after the October 29 cyclonic storm had devastated vast areas of it. The death roll mounted by the day as several affected areas, which had been rendered inaccessible, were accessed. The official toll as of November 15 stood at 9,524, the district-wise break-up being: Jagatsinghpur 8,119; Puri 287; Cuttack 392; Kendrapara 242; Nayagarh 3; Khurda 84; Bhadrak 92; Keonjhar 27; Dhenkanal 50; Jajpur 158; Balasore 48; and Mayurbhanj 7. Unofficial estimates put the toll a bove 50,000.

According to official estimates, 1.26 crore people in 12 districts have been affected. As many as 12.48 lakh houses have been damaged, and 15.7 lakh hectares of paddy crop and 32,956 hectares of other crops destroyed. Moreover, most of the paddy fields h ave been rendered uncultivable by the saline water carried 15 km inland by massive tidal waves.

State Revenue Minister Jagannath Patnaik, who is in charge of the relief operations, told Frontline: "If immediate steps are not taken, we will be saddled with a drought-like situation. We are giving top priority to developing a strategy for rabi cultivation." However, owing to the large-scale destruction of cattle, the State faces an acute shortage of draught animals. The Government planned to procure bullocks from the unaffected regions of the State and also from Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Pun jab. Tractors, not commonly employed in ploughing operations in the State, were also being mobilised. Negotiations were on to procure seeds from Maharashtra and Gujarat. "We have invited horticulturists to help us out in areas where saline water has ruin ed the land. We are willing to change the pattern of cultivation if necessary," Patnaik said.

The State government had sought a Central assistance of Rs.10,000 crores. The Centre granted Rs.200 crores. Patnaik said that the assistance extended was insufficient as rehabilitation work alone would require Rs.2,500 crores. The Government plans to app roach the World Bank for low interest loans for housing, electricity and infrastructural projects. "One of our top priorities is to rehabilitate the people who have been rendered homeless. HUDCO (Housing and Urban Development Corporation) has evolved a R s.190-crore housing scheme. We plan to construct cyclone-proof houses," the Minister said.

ALTHOUGH the water level had receded in most areas, several villages in the Ersama block of Jagatsinghpur district, such as Padmapur, Bhitarandhari, Dhinkia, Noagaon, Bagadia, Balitutha, Gandikipur and Kunjakothi - were still inundated. Stagnant water an d rotting bodies and carcasses posed a major threat to the survivors. Relief materials were air-dropped in these areas. Unofficial reports stated that 37 villages in Ersama had been washed away by tidal waves. Bijay Nayak, who represents Ersama in the St ate Assembly, said: "I am sure that in Ersama alone more than 20,000 people have died. More than 50 per cent of them are Bengalis who came from Midnapore."

P.K. Pani, Additional District Magistrate of Jagatsinghpur, said: "We are unable to enter some areas in Ersama because of the overpowering stench of rotting bodies and stagnant water. More than 14,000 hectares of agricultural land there has been destroye d and rendered unfertile. We are staring straight at a drought."

Unofficial reports stated that the cyclone had claimed more than 5,000 lives in adjoining Balikuda. The Army cleared two roads to Ersama. In areas that were inaccessible, Army personnel supplied drinking water by boats. "We lower our boats east of Ersama and through a creek, deliver relief materials," Brigadier R.S. Rawat, who is in charge of relief operations by the Army, said. An Army team of 5,000 men planned to clear another road to Ersama via a bridge 5 km away. "Approaches to the bridge from both sides are blocked. We are clearing them," Rawat said.

The Army also planned to open a 30-bed hospital in Ersama. Three Army hospitals were functioning at Balikuda, Tirtol and Kendrapara. Two more were to be opened in Mahakalpara and Ersama. A team of Army doctors and volunteers from Pune, stationed at Balik uda, visited Ersama to treat patients. The Army cleared a stretch of 1,712 km of road, subsidiary roads and railway tracks; evacuated 24,201 people; treated 16,319 patients; and distributed 5,922 packets of food and 60,600 kilolitres of water. With the j ob of providing immediate relief over, the Air Force operated two aircraft to drop relief materials in Ersama and Balikuda, which remained inaccessible. The Air Force delivered a daily average of 27 tonnes of food materials.

The Army and volunteers of organisations such as the Anand Marg, the Rashtriya Swayam-sevak Sangh (RSS) and Christian missionary organisations were involved in the disposal of corpses and carcasses. The Government has instructed District Magistrates and gram panchayat chiefs to burn the bodies. "We are providing them as much petrol, diesel and other material required for this," Patnaik said. Of the 3.5 lakh head of cattle killed in the cyclone, about 75,600 have been disposed of.

Defence Minister George Fernandes, who heads the Central monitoring team, announced in Bhubaneswar on November 12 that a cyclone reconstruction authority would be formed to deal with the current crisis as also similar calamities that may occur in the fut ure. The authority, comprising representatives of both the Central and State governments, would tackle long-term issues arising out of natural disasters.

SUNIL MALHOTRA/ REUTERS
In Khandadhar village. The storm brought down innumerable trees and destroyed thousands of houses in coastal Orissa.

Meanwhile, other Congress(I)-ruled States have adopted various districts affected by the cyclone. Puri has been adopted by Delhi, Kendrapara by Karnataka, Jagatsinghpur by Maharashtra, Bhadrak by Rajasthan, Jajpur by Madhya Pradesh and Keonjhar by Goa. T he Orissa Government insists that the Congress(I) governments would merely supplement the relief materials and manpower already available and not adopt any district. However, Goa's Minister for Agriculture Sanjay Bandhekar told Frontline: "We will adopt Keonjhar. We will first assess the damage and then send officials to rehabilitate the people." The Goa government has set up a special cell for relief, and all administrative officers, Ministers, Members of the Legislative Assembly and Members of Parliament in Goa have been asked to donate a month's salary to a relief and rehabilitation fund.

Senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers of Orissa resent the policy of adoption. "This will give rise to friction between the administrative officers of Orissa and other States," a senior officer said on the condition of anonymity. He said th at this was a political gimmick adopted by the Congress(I) ahead of the Assembly elections in order to project a picture of solidarity. "The man who is truly the knight in shining armour is Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is monit oring all relief work from Hyderabad instead of politicising matters by visiting Orissa," he said. Apart from sending 2,000 government employees to undertake relief work, Chandrababu Naidu assigned experts from different departments, such as engineering, medicine, and urban development, to the affected areas.

Not all IAS officers were happy with the planning and execution of relief works. Pratap Mukhopadhyay, Member, Board of Revenue, and the second senior most officer in the State, said: "A crisis such as this cannot be controlled from one place. Senior offi cers should have been deployed immediately to the affected areas as on-the-spot decisions had to be taken. Junior officers in the ranks of District Magistrates and Additional District Magistrates often hesitate to take them."

He said that the disaster was as much man-made as it was natural. The persistent depletion of forests in the coastal belt for the last 20 years had resulted in an ecological imbalance, he pointed out. The cyclone had swept away whatever little forest are a was left and another cyclone of similar intensity would occur, he said. "It is a vicious cycle." Another senior officer expressed his displeasure at the way relief materials were distributed. "Two truck loads of lemon rice that came from Andhra Pradesh was dumped at the Kalinga stadium and it lay there for over 48 hours. The rice got spoilt and had to be destroyed," he said. He further said that more than 15,000 polythene covers were waiting to be distributed.

THE port town of Paradeep almost return-ed to normalcy with the clearing of the roads and the restoration of water supply. As of November 13, five of the eight berths were filled. "We have achieved 50 per cent utilisation and hope to achieve 100 per cent within 100 days," Port Trust Chairman Santosh Mahapatra told Frontline. He said: "There is marginal silting of the channels; where there should be 14 metres of water there is 12 metres. But this can be desilted soon. We are waiting for an improve ment in power supply in order to load iron ore from the port plant. The damage to the port, estimated at Rs.65 crores, has not been much, considering that the port was set up at a cost of Rs.2,000 crores. What has been lost are the roofs of some godowns and office buildings, the electrical systems and 60 metres of the security wall around the port."

Electricity and water supply have been restored in most parts of Bhubaneswar. The animals in the Nandankanan Biological Park did not receive proper food and attention and as a result a number of camels are reported to have died. The Central zoo authority released Rs.20 lakhs for the immediate needs of Nandankanan. According to official estimates, Rs.4 crores is required to get the zoo back on its feet. With the cyclone destroying most of the bamboo shoots - the prime food for elephants - herds of elepha nts from the Chandaka Wildlife Sanctuary are raiding villages such as Chandaka, Andharua, Kantaban and Jokalandi.

NOTWITHSTANDING the State Government's claim that no epidemic was likely to break out in the cyclone- and flood-affected areas as precautionary measures had been taken, cases of gastroenteritis, cholera and diarrhoea were increasing. Official reports sta ted that 35 deaths had occurred owing to diseases and that nearly 5,000 persons had been admitted to hospitals. Cuttack reported 22 diarrhoea deaths and two cholera deaths, and 987 people were afflicted by diarrhoea in the district.

On November 13, a Sadbhabana Health Care Team from Gujarat, consisting of 150 doctors, arrived in Bhubaneswar with medicines meant for distribution in the affected districts. State Health Secretary Meena Gupta said that besides health teams from other St ates, 311 doctors and 515 paramedical workers had been deployed to treat the victims. She also said that Orissa had received 106 truckloads of halogen and paracetamol tablets and intravenous fluids.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was actively engaged in providing medical relief. It deployed eight medical teams, comprising medical and paramedical officers from New Delhi, Hyderabad, Jamshedpur and Durgapur, in Jagatsinghpur, Ersama, Astarang, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Kendrapara and Jajpur. These medical teams were also distributing drinking water. A team of international doctors supplied medicines required for one lakh people for a period of three months.

The United Nations has contributed in a big way. It has already provided medicine and relief materials worth $1.8 million. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has provided 420 tonnes of medicines and other relief supplies. The World Food Programm e, which had earlier promised $200,000, has increased the grant to $375,000. The U.N. Population Fund will provide assistance worth $170,000. The World Health Organisation will extend $100,000 in order to set up an emergency surveillance system to contro l epidemic.

The previous Finance Commission had made provisions for a National Calamity Relief Fund, which would meet the requirements of a State in the event of a natural calamity of "rare severity". That fund has long been exhausted, but the Centre has nevertheles s made available to Orissa more than Rs.500 crores by way of financial assistance.

Yet all these efforts may just not be enough to infuse life into coastal Orissa. With the State administration still grappling with the immediate problems of distributing relief materials and medicines and restoring public utilities, a detailed assessmen t of the damage to private and public property has not been possible. According to informed sources, when such an assessment is finally done, the financial burden may be awesome. "If in the final assessment 10 lakh houses are found damaged, Rs.5,000 cror es would be needed to repair them at Rs.50,000 a house." This burden is apart from financial requirement to provide infrastructure such as roads, power lines and water supply installations.