Ockhi Cyclone Dec-2017 Report English

6. OBSERVATIONS
Based on the extensive field visits conducted, which included meeting with the family
members of victims, meeting with survivors in the villages and those with
representatives of district and state administrations and the review of existing
government documents, civil society reports and media reports, the inquest team
makes the following observations –
1. Very little or no lessons seem to have been learnt from post-Tsunami disaster
response, which is almost 13 years now. Cyclone Ockhi has again shown a
clear state of apathy where the citizens have been literally left in the lurch.
They were considered as outside of some bureaucratic/governance map, for
example the deep-sea fishing community who left before November 29, 2017,
were completely abandoned. The invisibility of this group, supposed to be
equal citizens, is extremely distressing. Citizenship does not cease in a
disaster situation because It mainly affects their entitlements. It took several
protests to attract the attention of the government, for example the Tamil
Nadu Chief Minister visited only after 13 days of the Ockhi cyclone disaster.
2. There has been no attempt to establish a framework of accountability post
Ockhi cyclone at all levels, even as it remains completely evident that there
has been gross negligence and failures at multiple levels and a case of
complete mismanagement of emergency response system. The government
has taken no action to hold the concerned ministries, institutions, departments
and individuals.
3. The World Bank commissioned ‘Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Coastal Disaster
Risk Reduction Project’ in the aftermath of 2004 Tsunami disaster with an aim
to increase the resilience of coastal communities in Tamil Nadu and
Puducherry has completely failed. The quantum of progress made in this
project as on December 31, 2017, supposed to be completed by July 31,
2018, is extremely worrying and portrays grave lapses. This is also a
reflection of the lack of priority and seriousness of the Tamil Nadu government
towards the fisherfolk and those residing in coastal villages and settlements in
the state. There is an urgent need to ensure accountability given that people’s
lives and money, to the quantum of US$ 337.20 millions, has been spent.
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