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Tuhin K. Das
Jadavpur University
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The Economy of Marine Fishing in West Bengal: Digha Coastal Region, financed by the Department of Ocean Development, 1992 View project
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Introduction
Natural disasters are destructive and tragic events that harm society, economy
and environment. Cyclone Aila hit West Bengal, a State of India, in the year 2009,
flooding villages and forcing thousands of people from their homes. The cyclone,
accompanied by heavy rain, hit the coastal areas of West Bengal, leaving at least 18
people dead and around 0.1 million affected. A large part of the state of West Bengal
is exposed to frequent natural catastrophes like floods, cyclones, droughts and
landslides that often turn into disasters causing significant disruption of
socioeconomic life of communities and loss of human lives and properties.
Global consequences of natural disasters for the survival and livelihoods of
individuals and communities are increasing over time. It has been observed that the
number of natural disasters occurring now is more than four times than that occurred
two decades ago. But at the same time there has been a paradigm shift in the attitude
of the global community towards natural hazards, from a relief-centric approach to a
holistic and integrated approach that emphasizes prevention, mitigation, and
preparedness of extreme events.
It is felt, therefore, in West Bengal too there should be an increasing importance
of disaster risk reduction and increased disaster-response capacities towards building
disaster resilient societies. Consequently, this demands an interdisciplinary study on
natural disasters in this state. The book on “Disasters in West Bengal: An
Interdisciplinary Study” is such an attempt to accomplish the above requirements.1
Experts from different fields have contributed articles, starting from meteorology to
management and geomorphology to economics, on the basis of which this book has
been edited.
An Interdisciplinary Study
Natural Hazard
[Discussed in CH 2]