A week after cyclonic storm Gaja made its landfall near Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district
Cyclonic storm Gaja, which ravaged Tamil Nadu, is probably the worst disaster faced by the farmers after independence in terms of damages caused to their livelihood, said senior bureaucrat Gagandeep Singh Bedi, who is overseeing relief works in the worst-affected Nagapattinam district.
"This is the biggest natural disaster faced by Tamil Nadu. In terms of life loss, 2004 tsunami was the highest, but for the farmers, this is the biggest disaster in the post-independence era," Bedi, who is the current Agricultural Production Commissioner, told DNA.
A week after cyclonic storm Gaja made its landfall near Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district, people are still struggling to return to normal life, with no power supply and access to drinking water and food. As many as 63 people were killed in the cyclone that destroyed 3.41 lakh houses and uprooted over 60 lakh trees and one lakh electricity poles in the 12 districts of the state.
Bedi, who is well-known for the tsunami relief work undertaken by him during his stint as Cuddalore district collector, said that the cyclone has a much bigger impact on farmers than the tsunami. "This cyclone affected farmers of nine districts," he said.
Health secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan, who is camping in Nagapattinam, said though cyclone Gaja was one of the worst natural calamities to hit the state, it would not be appropriate to compare the two disasters.
"The challenge of Cyclone Gaja is the trail of destruction it left behind, from Nagapattinam to Kodaikanal. Generally, cyclones tend to weaken after crossing land. Yet, this time, the destruction was extensive in all the districts including interior ones. This makes it peculiar," he added.
Moreover, Radhakrishnan, who headed the disaster management team of the United Nation Development Programme in India during 2009-12, said that in the earlier disasters, it was seasonal crops like paddy would be hit by the floods. "This time the destruction has happened in the areas very rich in the lifetime crops like coconut, mango and cashew," he noted.
As the destruction was so extensive, the people in the interior villages of Nagapattinam, Pudukottai and Thanjavur continued to stage protests against tardy relief works and negligence of the officials to visit their village to enumerate the damages. Bedi said that the officials were in the field carrying out immediate relief works like arranging shelter, food and removing uprooted trees and electricity poles in the first four to five days. "Now officials will pan out to the affected villages to take up the enumeration of the damages," he said.
Cyclone Gaja damages report card:
Loss of human lives: 63
3.78 lakh people moved to 556 relief camps
Loss of cattle and birds: 1.04 lakh (12,298 cattle)
Damages to housing units: 3.41 lakh (2.78 lakh huts)
Electric poles: 1.03 lakh
Trees uprooted on roads: 11.32 lakhs
Coconut trees in 30,000 hectares damaged
Paddy crops in 32,706 hectares
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 "Cyclone Gaja")
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