Bhubaneswar: A total of 49,736 people died and property worth Rs 8,814 crore has been lost in Orissa due to natural calamities in a span of 30 years from 1970 to 2007.

A report ‘Orissa: Natural Hazards & Disasters, Vulnerability Analysis & Risk Assessment” prepared by Prof GK Panda was released by chief minister Naveen Patnaik Naveen Patnaik on Thursday on the 10th anniversary of the Super Cyclone.

UNDP and OSDMA (Orissa State Disaster Mitigation Authority) provided the support for the preparation of the report.
People were victims of natural disasters like cyclones, floods, lightning, heat waves and fire, the report said.

Of the reported deaths while 32 per cent died in cyclones, 51 per cent died due to epidemics.

Lightning and heat waves claimed 6 per cent of the lives each, followed by fire which is 2 per cent.

Kendrapada and Jagatsinghpur reported highest loss of human lives.

The death in the two districts was mostly due to cyclones and floods and the annual death rate was 194 and 245 respectively, the report said.

During the period nearly 1.3 million houses had completely collapsed due to floods, cyclones and fire with an annual average figure of 36,413 houses lost per annum.

While cyclones damaged 50 per cent of the houses, 35 per cent of them were prey to fire and 15, it said.

The state lost property worth Rs 8,814 crore during the period in terms of crop loss and damage to institutional properties, the report said, adding that 83 per cent of property loss was due to floods followed by 15 per cent by cyclones and two per cent in fire incidents.

For every person killed, about 2,224 people are exposed to disaster while for every one lakh population, the number of houses fully destroyed is 1250 and the loss of property per lakh population is nearly Rs 80 million, the report stated.

Significantly, it said that disaster risk reduction must focus on climate risk management and called for incorporating disaster risk management into the development policies to reduce disaster risks.

The report found that districts with high exposed population and high concentration of SC/ST population, are also associated with a high level of risk.

Providing a break-up of calamities-related impact, it said health hazards (epidemics) accounted for over 8.5 lakh people being affected every year.

At least 700 people die every year and districts like Rayagada, Jagatsinghpur, Koraput, Boudh, Kalahandi, Malkangiri are highly vulnerable.

It was also found that on an average, floods affects over 1.6 million people in the state while over 4 lakh people are exposed to cyclone and 27,000 people to fire mishaps.

Calling for improved understanding and use of disaster monitoring systems, the report stated that incidents of lightning are now a daily affair and after the 1999 cyclone, things have only worsened.

Despite all these tragic incidents, the state has been a victim of Central apathy, the report pointed out.