Nature-based solutions to disasters in the Indian Ocean region

In March last year, Cyclone Amphan, said to be the first super cyclone to form in the Bay of Bengal since 1999, devastated the state of West Bengal, killing more than a hundred people. At least 140,000 people died and two million people were displaced when Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy Delta in Burma (Myanmar) in May 2008. It seemed as if a bucket of water had been sloshed across an ink drawing; the carefully marked lines of the delta's waterways had been erased and the paper beneath was buckled and distorted.

The last super cyclone to hit India occurred in 1999 and caused nearly 10,000 deaths in Orissa (Odisha) state. In 2019, Cyclone Fani, which formed in the Bay of Bengal, hit Orissa, causing immense damage to life and property. "The north coast of the Bay of Bengal is more prone to catastrophic surges than anywhere else on Earth," Bob Henson, meteorologist and writer with Weather Underground had told the BBC. He said that the Bay of Bengal is a "textbook example" of the worst kind of places for storm-surges to develop—shallow, concave bays where water is pushed by the strong winds of a tropical cyclone. This gets concentrated as the storm moves up the bay. Meteorologists say that the worst places for storm-surges tend to be shallow, concave bays where water, pushed by the strong winds of a tropical cyclone, gets concentrated or funnelled as the storm moves up the bay.