Risk to resilience: analysing barriers to cyclone vulnerability in coastal Odisha

Odisha state is situated in eastern India and has a 480 km long coastline.The coastal belt is one of the most cyclone-vulnerable regions in India.It consists of 22 community development blocks spread across six districts.Nearly one-third of the state's total population lives in this region.Between 1891 and 2021, the state has been hit by 110 cyclones.Therefore, there is a need for a detailed assessment at the micro-level to identify cyclone vulnerability and risk.Such an assessment would help not only in planning for enhancing resilience to cyclone disasters but also in devising better strategies and adaptive measures.The major objectives of the study are (i) to identify the vulnerability and risk factors that need to be addressed at the community and household levels and (ii) to assess the status of socio-ecological resilience to cyclone vulnerability.Data for the present study were collected from primary as well as secondary sources.Two hundred and six sample households were selected from the cyclone-affected areas by using a stratified random sampling technique.Major factors that made rural households more vulnerable to cyclones were the severity of cyclone damage, income constraints, lack of banking awareness, absence of a market for selling products and loans and migration-driven labour scarcity.These findings would contribute to the understanding of the vulnerability of both space and society in coastal Odisha and thereby suggest strengthening measures to create cyclone resilience.