Very severe cyclonic storm “Gaja” and its impact off the Tamil Nadu coastline

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the Gaja – a very severe cyclonic storm that battered thousands of lives in Cauvery delta regions of Tamil Nadu. The cyclone originated from the Gulf of Thailand on 5th November 2018 and gradually turned into a very severe cyclonic storm that made a landfall at Tamil Nadu coast on 15th November 2018. Nagapattinam was one of the most affected coastal districts, which endured extensive damage due to coastal flood and wind-rose to about 120 kmph. The current study was focused on the impact assessments of the co-operative society members. The statistical chisquare distribution was calculated to substantiate the significant relationships between the physical attributes, socioeconomic conditions and level of vulnerability to the coastal communities affected by the cyclone. The major findings of the study reveals that the human vulnerability is highly significant to the physical attributes and socio-economic factors such as mean sea level, distance of house-holds from the shore-line, house type, income and education. The study suggests that the policy managers should proactively consider all the identified variables homogeneously to proficiently improvise the disaster management, preparedness; adaptation and mitigation measures to efficiently conserve the resources from vulnerable hazards.