Direct impact

Natural calamities of Odisha from 1965 to 2013

The direct impact of climate change includes frequent and intense droughts, floods, cyclones, heat and cold waves, and cloud burst in many agricultural regions. These events affect the crop, animal husbandry, and fishery and at times destroy the whole farming systems. The state of Odisha is vulnerable to extreme climatic conditions due to its geographical location (OSDMA, 2016). The frequency of these climatic extreme events has been increasing in the state since the last few decades. During the period 1964-65 to 2015-16 (52 years), extreme events have occurred 35 times; droughts in 19 years, floods in 10 years, and cyclones in 6 years. The probability of occurrence of drought, flood, and cyclone in a year has been worked out to be 0.37, 0.19 and 0.11 respectively. These extreme events have caused damage to the crops, livestock, infrastructures, livelihood resources, food security, and development of the state.