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Lessons from cyclones Amphan and Nisarga for India's disaster management plan

Impacts of two tropical cyclones, Nisarga in Maharashtra and Gujarat and Amphan

in West Bengal and Odisha, have reinforced the urgency of climate adaptation and building resilience into urban and environmental planning for coastal megacities.

The two states and their respective capitals – Mumbai and Kolkata – are currently grappling with overlapping disasters – extreme weather events and Covid-19, against the backdrop of environmental degradation with choking rivers and wetlands and mangroves that buffer from cyclones shrinking due to urbanisation and expansion. Exposed to rising sea levels and high population density, the low-lying cities are prone to flooding during the monsoon which has set in.

Nisarga made landfall near Alibaug in coastal Maharashtra’s Raigad district on June 3 as a severe cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 mph. Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, narrowly escaped the cyclone’s fury. It caused minimal damage to life and property said National Disaster Response Force chief RN Pradhan.

Mumbai is India’s most populous city with 20 million residents. The state currently accounts for one-third of India’s Covid-19 cases. In addition to the pandemic and cyclone, locust swarms have been sighted in parts of Eastern Maharashtra, in what is said to be the largest locust swarm in close to three decades.

On the opposite coast of...

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