The deep depression over the south-west Bay of Bengal off the Sri Lanka-south Tamil Nadu coast may be set to lose traction as projected cyclone Fengal, but this does not diminish the fact that states located on the eastern coast of India are hotspots for compounding risks of hazards such as floods, cyclones, and droughts.
Tamil Nadu, which is vulnerable to all three of these extreme events, has witnessed a twofold increase in the number of tropical cyclones in the past decade, according to an analysis by the Delhi-based think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
Vishwas Chitale, Senior Programme Lead at CEEW, told the businessline that 11 out of 32 districts in the state are exposed to cyclones. CEEW also finds that the state has a high availability of cyclone multi-hazard early warning systems. These systems play a crucial role in informing decision-makers and communities ahead of time to evacuate and reduce the potential losses.
As a novel initiative, the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Tamil Nadu state government have also developed CFLOWS-Chennai, a web GIS-based decision-making support system, integrating data and outputs derived from weather forecast models to build India’s first integrated coastal flood warning system, Chitale pointed out.