When Nature unleashes her fury, the only option for many is to pick up their lives and start from scratch after the storm has passed. Devastation is an acceptable outcome. It should not be. Improvements in science have given us early warning systems for rains and cyclones. In India, the east coast, though, is more prone to cyclones than the west. To make matters worse, West Bengal also sits on an active seismic zone.

One may ask why cyclones hit the Bay of Bengal coast and why they are so frequent. Meteorologists have an answer but that doesn’t help us much in saving ourselves from Nature’s fury. The more important question is how we can recover from the impact of a cyclone.

According to the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project, between 1891 and 2000, 308 cyclones have hit the eastern coast of India out of which 103 were severe. Given the early prediction system in place, the question that begs an answer relates to our readiness to face the next cyclone of Amphan’s intensity and our ability to repair the devastation wreaked by such an intense cyclone.

The West Bengal government claims super cyclone Amphan has left a repair bill of Rs 1.02 lakh crore. The state has announced financial aid for eight lakh people hit by Amphan. The prime minister has announced a grant of Rs 1000 crore as preliminary relief.

Apart from the financial burden left behind by Amphan, there is the cost of the lockdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted the economy on a huge scale and forced us to think of a new way of functioning that factors in social distancing, work-from-home, a depleted labour force in manufacturing and how the pandemic will play out and how many it will kill before we can control it.

The experience sadly has underscored our limited resources to contain damage resulting from Nature’s fury.

One must, in this context, keep in mind the fact that West Bengal has been a lucky sufferer. Odisha and Bangladesh have faced many more powerful cyclones than Bengal. It is argued that Odisha has mastered the art of managing cyclones and other states can learn from it. (After Amphan, we did borrow Odisha’s disaster management teams to work alongside our teams.)

So, in a sense, our mission to become better prepared to face natural disasters starts now. The era of technological advancement and digital Darwinism calls for advanced protective measures. From building embankments to disaster management technologies, cities and villages must build the infrastructure that can handle such natural disasters.

We need to focus more on sectors such as health, finance, housing, food supply, energy supply and communication while preparing for such eventualities. The immediate response and rehabilitation procedures should be laid out in a detailed framework. Timely preparation will not only save lives but will also minimise the damages.