Kerala is still coming to terms with the trail of destruction left behind by Ockhi, the cyclonic storm which struck the southern tip of the subcontinent and Lakshadweep on the morning of November 30.

What happened?

Caught unawares, the State government initially struggled to deal with the human tragedy as hundreds of fishermen from five coastal villages in Thiruvananthapuram were reported missing at sea. The death toll so far is 65. The storm, the likes of which the southwest coast of India has not seen for decades, exposed the chinks in Kerala’s disaster preparedness.

Weren’t people warned?

Almost a month after the storm, there has been no let-up in the blame game between the India Meteorology Department (IMD) and the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) about why people were not told of the impending danger. While the State government and the SDMA assert that the IMD failed to issue a cyclone alert on time, thus jeopardising the lives of hundreds of fishermen, the Central agency maintains that the State ignored its warning of a deep depression that was threatening to intensify into a cyclone.

The coastal communities in Thiruvananthapuram, which bore the brunt of the storm, are not enthused by the ugly spat between officials. Over 150 traumatised families are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their breadwinners, their anguish expressed in the vociferous protests against State Ministers and the poignant scenes during Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s visit to the fishing village of Poonthura early last week.

The government has rebutted the charge of having lost valuable time in launching a search and rescue operation at sea. But the raging dispute over the number of missing fishermen, between the Fisheries and Revenue Departments on the one hand and the government and the Latin Archdiocese on the other, is something it cannot deny. Search teams have recovered 65 bodies offshore, and 80 fishermen are still missing at sea. Relief and rehabilitation measures have been stepped up and the government has announced ₹20 lakh in ex gratia for the families of the dead or missing fishermen. The State has urged the Centre for a cyclone relief package of ₹7,340 crore, besides an assistance of ₹420 crore, from the National Disaster Relief Fund.

Will things change?

A major revamp of the SDMA is on the cards, with more experts expected to be brought on board. The government has also initiated efforts to deploy satellite communication facilities for the safety of fishers at sea.

“That this cyclone was of a rare nature that defied scientific prediction is of little solace to the victims. Life will never be the same again for them. We have been let down by the administration and the scientific community,” says T. Peter, secretary, National Fishworkers Forum.

The coastal communities are not willing to settle for anything short of exemplary punishment for those guilty of lapses in alerting them to the cyclone. They harbour a deep mistrust in the government’s capacity to spend the relief funds without diversion or wastage.

Cyclone Ockhi has underlined the need for meteorologists to come up with better forecasting systems, especially in light of projections about the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events along the western coast due to the warming of the Arabian Sea. But experts point out that the best prediction model is useless unless the government deploys an efficient dissemination system to warn vulnerable communities in time.

Scientists feel that Ockhi should be an eyeopener for Kerala. “It should force us to re-assess our vulnerabilities and develop appropriate mitigation strategies in view of the challenges posed by climate change,” says George Chackacherry, director, Institute of Climate Change Studies, under the State government.