Disaster Mitigation & Planning for Tsunami in Coastal Areas

Abstract

India is a peninsular (peninsula A peninsula or almost an island which is surrounded by water on three sides.(Latin: paeninsula from paene “almost” and insula “island”) India is surrounded by the Arabian Sea on the west, Bay of Bengal on the East and Indian Ocean on the south) country which is vulnerable to various kinds of natural hazards. Tsunami is one such hazard which threatens all coastal states intensely. North Andaman, Sumatra and Car Nicobar in Bay of Bengal and Makran Trench in the Arabian Sea are major faults which make India susceptible to earthquakes as well as tsunamis. Tsunami is an unpredictable hazard in which time of occurrence, epicenter and its intensity are erratic prior to the strike. It is only after its occurrence that the early warning systems are able to procure and disseminate information about data such as its time of occurrence, its intensity and travel time of waves to the concerned control rooms. Through this study it is found that most of the time, communication failure, lack of education and unclear planning of evacuation are the main reasons which lead to the devastation and weak community resilience. This chapter underlines the importance of knowledge and experience of disaster risk reduction to identify key management lessons learned from Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. The mechanism for reinforcing the coastal areas vulnerable to tsunami are discussed, along with best practices especially related to the coastal areas of Kutch district in Gujarat state. An existing scenario of tsunami hazard management in and around the coastal areas of Mandvi taluka of Kutch district has been studied through selected cases and their analysis vis-a-vis the existing plans for evacuation and knowledge management in the rural areas.