Cyclone and Storm Surge - Iczmpwb.org

4.4
This shows that Orissa (with 103 cyclones in last 114 years) is most affected state with Andhra
Pradesh (with 73 cyclones in last 114 years) is second most affected state closely followed by West
Bengal (with 71 cyclones in last 114 years). This indicates the importance of vulnerability assessment
of West Bengal due to tropical cyclones.
4.3. District-wise distribution
The above mentioned 114 year’s cyclone datasets are used to assess the vulnerability of the districts
of West Bengal. The datasets shows that only nine districts of the states are affected by one or more
cyclones during last 114 years. The figure-3 below shows the number of cyclones & severe cyclones
affected the districts.
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
.
Midnapore 24 24
Pargana(N) Pargana(S)
Haora Nadia Bankura Hugli Bardhaman Purulia
Severe Cyclone
Cyclone
Figure 3: Number of tropical cyclone crossing various districts of India
Only two coastal districts (South 24 Pargana and Midnapore or more specifically east Midnapore) are
affected by severe cyclones that too only 3 severe cyclones crossing east Midnapore. So, in that
sense only South 24 Pargana is found to be vulnerable to severe cyclones with 12 severe cyclones
crossing the district. Similar is the case for cyclones as well with 32 & 38 cyclones crossing
Midnapore and South 24 Parganas respectively. Other districts are affected by a few cyclones only.
Table 1 gives the number / frequency of cyclones and their return period in years.