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Kerala

Kerala is one of the smallest states of India, with an area of 38863 sq. km.(1.2% of the total India) The Western Ghats constituting the Eastern parts of the state rise from very low altitudes of a few hundred meter up to 2000 m on an average. Based on the physical features the state is divided into three natural regions – 1) The sandy coastal region (10%), 2) The midland region (42%) and 3) The highland region (48%).

Kerala’s coast runs some 580 km in length, while the state itself varies between 35–120 km in width. Geographically, Kerala roughly divides into three climatically distinct regions. These include the eastern highlands (rugged and cool mountainous terrain), the central midlands (rolling hills), and the western lowlands (coastal plains). Located at the extreme southern tip of the Indian subcontinent, Kerala lies near the center of the Kerala’s maximum daily temperature averages 36.7 °C; the minimum is 19.8 °C. Mean annual temperatures range from 25.0–27.5 °C in the coastal lowlands to 20.0–22.5 °C in the highlands. Indian tectonic plate (the Indian Plate); as such most of the state (notwithstanding isolated regions) is subject to comparatively little seismic or volcanic activity.

With 120–140 rainy days per year, Kerala has a wet and maritime tropical climate influenced by the seasonal heavy rains of the southwest summer monsoon. In eastern Kerala, a drier tropical wet and dry climate prevails. Kerala's rainfall averages 3,107 mm annually. Some of Kerala's drier lowland regions average only 1,250 mm; the mountains of eastern Idukki district receive more than 5,000 mm of orographic precipitation, the highest in the state. In summers, most of Kerala is prone to gale force winds, storm surges, cyclone-related torrential downpours, occasional droughts, and rises in sea level and storm activity.

Community resources

- There is high level of political and developmental awareness at the level of community. This makes people of the state more responsive and perceptive towards addressing, prioritizing and conducting any need based approach. Tsunami has widened the horizon of people’s acceptance about catastrophe where almost every single individual knows and comprehends the word DISASTER with extreme variable range of understanding.
- Panchayati Raj Institutions are the important strength of at the community level. Gram Sabha can become important vehicle for the information dissemination about community based preparedness.

NGO resources

• There have been substantial examples of PROJECT BASED interagency sectoral coordination within Kerala. There are almost more than 250 large small civil society agencies. NGOs are intensively involved in organizing communities in livelihood enhancement groups like SHGs, youth groups etc. This provides large geographical and population coverage to the NGOs. This can be viewed as strength of the NGOs which can be utilized for mainstreaming of CBDP.
• In common scenario-most of the developmental issues are being taken up by the affiliate’s organizations of the political parties, hence non governmental organizations hardly interested for any role in setting and advocating public opinions for policy change.
• Prior to tsunami no one in the state has ever been looked at and identified disaster preparedness as one of the key potential areas of mainstream development. Few leading aid agencies (like-World Vision, CASA, etc) at the state have a minimum catastrophe fund kept reserve every yearly budget which is used for the response. Agencies like World Vision, Helpage India and CASA have initiated the work of CBDP awareness by disseminating the information about rescue operation, social maps etc.
• International aid agencies are gradually moving back to normalcy or wherein community disaster preparedness and allied capacity building is not seen as the further extension of the programme.
• Inter agency GO-NGO coordination was proactively dealt during relief, rescue & emergency response phase. However at present such coordination is not seen as the priority.
• Both print and electronic media (especially the media in local languages) are having the “voice of the society” with maximum outreach. Such potential can become effective tool for advocacy, if NGOs take initiative in research and writing articles on the disaster related issues.

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Interactive Kerala Map Courtesy : Google

Emergency Contingency Palnning - Kerala- 2007 - Summary Results

Note:

Analysis based on the data collected from several stake holders from the state including NGOs, Panchayat presidents and Government officials

Government resources

• District Administration of Kolam district has taken a significant initiative in data collection from affected villages as the step towards district preparedness plan. Few NGOs also participated in this process. The transfer of the government officials, lack of concrete guidelines from state are the few reasons listed by the district administration in justifying the delay in data processing.
• Most of the funds for disaster mitigation are spent on infrastructure like bridges. The gram Panchayat though directly spend almost 28.5 % of the total state budget, are not getting any funds for disaster preparedness.
• After tsunami, the Secretariat of Relief & Rehabilitation at the State level has begun to formulate the fundaments of State Disaster Management Authority in technical assistance with Institute of Land & Disaster Management. The policies seem to be covering all basics deliverables of Disaster Management Act, but they are yet to endorsed by legislation at the state assembly which itself appearing one of the major stumbling blocks for the act to become functional.
• As per the norms of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) the state has taken steps towards initiating the policy formulation of the State Disaster Management Authority. But in spite of being in “multi hazard zone” the authority is still under the scanner of red tape at the state since this has not been considered with priority.
• As matter of positive effect, every government line department starting from village information centre till district collectors-staffs have learnt and trained in mobilizing communities, for immediate response. But there is no significant skill building exercise for the same cadre to understand & internalized the need of disaster preparedness at all level.
• Even at the district like Kollam (the worst hit tsunami affected district of Kerala) doesn’t have any infrastructure regularized the NODAL CONTROL ROOM at the district level. The direction comes from down the line incase there is any high alert for flood or tidal waves prevails at the surroundings.

Response Planning

CIVIL Society organizations and Government took collective action during Tsunami relief work. There was a good coordination mechanism in between government and the NGOs. However same coordination mechanism is not continued for the further phase of disaster preparedness. Though there are more than 250 grassroots NGOs, at present most of them are not involved in any type of preparedness activities.
• Across the state of Kerala the contextual acceptance of rapid onset community level preparedness is appearing to be a “stand alone approach” since the government officials from key line departments as well the leading civil society agencies are yet to come forth and mainstream the radical concept of preparedness with other on going regular development projects.

Scenario - Scale

No	Disaster	Ranking	Areas affected
1	Earthquake	2	Entire state
2	Cyclone	2	Almost 96.9% of the State lies in high wind-speed areas. Most Vulnerable Districts are Calicut, Cannore, Ernakulam, Malapuram.
3	Floods	4	Heavy monsoon rains and backwater create flood situation in Kerala. Almost 0.82 million ha. of the land is liable to flood. Thiruvanthpuram (2 taluks and 13 villages), Pathanamthitta (5 taluks and 11 villages), Kottayam (2 taluks and 11 villages), Alapuzha (6 taluks and 85 villages),	Ernakulam (2 taluks 21 villages), Thissur (all villages in 2 taluks and 33 villages in 2 taluks), Palakkad (all villages in Alathur taluk), Malappuram district (all villages in five taluks and 14 villages in Perinthalmanna taluk), Kozhikode (3 taluks and 31 villages)
4	Land slides	3	Wayanad and Iddike districts located in the hills of Western Ghat
5	Drought	3	Thiruvanthpuram (4 taluks, 48 villages) Kollam (5 taluks, 68 villages) Alappuzha (6 taluks, 53 villages) Kottayam district (5 taluks, 60 villages) Wayanadu (Entire district) Thissur (6 taluks, 129 villages) Palakkad (5 taluks, 94 villages)	Kasaragod (Entire district) Ernakulam (6 taluk, 88 villages) Idukki (Entire district) Pathanamthitta (6 taluks, 53 villages) Kannur district (3 taluks, 57 villages) Kozhikode (Entire district) Malappuram (Entire district)
6	Sea erosion	4	Entire coastal area
7	Tsunami	4	Kollam, Alllapuzha and Ernakulam districts

Please note: The ranking of the disasters based on the perceptions of the participants in the workshops with CP partners on the scale of 1 (least) to 5 (high) on likelihood.