The Children of the Sea
The land, the wind, the sea, and the sky, they all work in perfect symphony to create the magic called nature. The green glaze of the trees, the singing streams and roaring rivers, the fertile plains that are nothing less than edible bursts of color, are the ornaments intricately created and then gifted to their beloved children, the humans. The earthlings were blessed to flourish on the mother’s bounties. However, the darkness of greed paved its way into the hearts of the humans, casting a shadow of gloom on their happiness. This is their story.
Once upon a time, there was a tiny village, hustling and bustling near the ocean. For the villagers, the sea was their mother and the shores were her loving embrace. The sea was ecstatic to see her children brimming with happiness. They would start their day by bowing down to the Mother, sail through the sea singing songs of her glory, and play hide and seek on her gigantic waves. She would reward them with her ocean bounties. She gave them miles of fertile green lands and crystal clear backwaters.
The Mother was fond of the little ones and loved it when the tiny feet played on her clean, sandy beaches. Occasionally, she would sway them with her waves and gift them tiny tokens of love. She would swell with pride when she heard their innocent laughter. “Always stay happy,” she would bless them with all her love.
One day everything changed as darkness loomed over her. The ocean mother tried to avoid the looming danger because she knew it would bring nothing but despair to her children. She kept wondering who let the monster loose as she did everything right to keep him under her dominion.
But now, there is no going back. Defeating the swirling monster is the only way out because the monster kept drinking on the Mother’s energy to gain strength. Soon the air turned moist and heavy around her and thick dark clouds formed like gigantic waves in the sky depriving the ocean of sunlight. The devil, who was swirling over her with a crooked smile, spread its stormy tentacles. “I can’t let him harm my babies,” she thought to herself and prepared for the battle.
It was the dead of the night when she decided to crash the demon on the land. She gathered all her energy and surged as high as possible to fight the mighty beast, who now has his wicked “eye” fixed on her.
She cried and screamed and kept twisting and pushing the swirling monster onto the land. “Just for one night my beloved children, everything will be fine in the morning, I promise,” she said to herself, while helplessly looking at the village.
She fought ferociously for hours and finally managed to slam the demonic swirl on the land. But even in his weakness, the swirl flashed a gnarly smile before the mountains overpowered him.
“It’s done!! I won the battle and it is now time to return home. My babies are safe, sleeping peacefully in their sweet homes,” she said to herself.
But, her triumphant joy did not last long. “Wait — where am I?” A shiver ran through her spine when she realized the unimaginable price she has paid to win the war. “What have I done? Where are my children? my happy, jolly, beautiful children,” the heartbroken mother screamed. She has crossed her territory and has come miles towards the land, marooning the villages. Her grief was unfathomable, and her tears of sorrow uncontrollable.
The village has disappeared and so have her children. The dying monster’s devious smile said it all and she realized she has shattered everything. Her ferocious waves have devoured the bustling village. But even in destruction, the lifeless bodies of her beloved children are still clinging on to her, their mother. She wept on the shores for days while carrying tens of thousands of lifeless bodies. For she knew, nothing will be the same again.
This may sound like a tale from a book, but it is not. The people of Odisha are still bearing the scars of the destruction that descended on them 21 years ago. Known as Cyclone BOB 06, the super cyclone caused catastrophic damage in many districts across the state’s shoreline.
The super cyclonic storm was intense, with winds over 260 km per hour. If that wasn’t all, an unfortunate tsunami-like storm surge, which went as high as 20 feet, swept away many villages. The violent seawater swamped the inland up to 20 kilometers. Considered as one of the rarest cyclones, the BOB remained static on the land over the coastal Jajpur causing heavy downpour for over 24 hours. This floodwater and the surged sea created catastrophic floods that aggravated the damage further.
Erasama and Kujang in Jagatsinghpur district were the worst affected by the storm. While the official figures peg the toll at around 10,000, the super cyclone killed more than 30,000 people on that fateful night.
The people of Odisha were stunned. There wasn’t any social media or lightning-fast news coverage at the time to document the heartbreaking damage and it’s after effects on the people. The government wasn’t prepared for something so massive.
The state was wrecked with the massive disaster that affected over 20 million people. Around 90 million trees were uprooted, 1,500 kilometers of fertile fields destroyed, 2.5 million domesticated animals killed, and thousands of children orphaned. The damage was estimated at around $4.5 billion.
Help poured in from everywhere to ease the pain but none of it was enough to heal the state. It took days to clean the bodies and debris, months to restore electricity and essential supplies, and years to recover from the trauma.
Like every fall teaches one to rise stronger, the 1999 super cyclone taught the people to be prepared for any future super cyclone. In the next few years, the government swung into action and vowed to protect precious lives from a similar fate by forming an effective disaster mechanism. It swiftly formed a disaster management authority to lay the groundwork.
Understanding that level management would build a strong foundation, the government built strong storm-proof houses across the shoreline to give villagers shelter and food. Each and every youngster of the coastal villages was trained to swim, ride a boat, and even perform CPR if needed, all as part of the rescue missions. The meteorological department underwent a sophisticated overhaul to predict the path of the cyclonic storm and its intensity accurately.
Years before India formed a disaster management team, the state formed its own — Odisha State Disaster Management Authority. Every year, under the team’s guidance, coastal villages perform mock drills for days to help raise awareness among people to stay prepared for a cyclonic storm. The government mechanism works 24/7 to keep the people updated about any upcoming storm, even if it is a deep depression.
The disaster management authority took the warnings and cautions of the meteorology department seriously. All these helped the state to minimize cyclone-related damages in the future.
Since BOB 06, the state has weathered four major cyclones, — Phailin (2013), Hudhud (2014), Titli (2018), and Fani (2019).
However, the casualties were minimal compared to the 1999 devastation.
Fani, which touched Puri coast on 5 May 2019, was the most powerful one after BOB 06 with a wind speed of around 215 kilometers per hour. Thanks to the massive evacuation efforts by the state government, the toll was limited to 79.
And now the state is gearing up to fight another extremely severe cyclonic storm Amphan, which is predicted to make a landfall between Digha (West Bengal) and Hatiya Islands (Bangladesh), close to Sundarbans, with maximum sustained wind of 165–175 kmph gusting up to 195 kmph in the afternoon/evening of 20 May. The cyclone might also bring a 20-feet storm surge, reminding people of the 1999 devastation.
Global warming, a creation of human greed, is said to be the primary cause of the catastrophic natural disasters that have now become the new normal. We can reverse the damage only if we introspect and change our way of living while respecting Mother Nature.
