Differential Impacts of Natural Disasters on Household Income: A study of Cyclone Thane in Melanjippattu Village in Tamil Nadu

The scientific predictions indicate that global climate change will increase the number of extreme events, leading to more frequent natural hazards such as floods and cyclones. Already, the reported global costs of disaster have increased 14 folds between 1950 and 1990. Total economic losses for the period 1980–2012 were estimated at $480.63 billion in current dollars. For India, average economic damage per year due to disaster is $1, 550 million. According to the World Bank, annual direct losses from natural disasters are estimated at 2 per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product (Guha-Sapir et al., 2004). This paper tried to assess the impact of a natural disaster on household incomes in a village. The study also assessed the income of the different occupational groups in two agriculture seasons. Data used in this paper was collected in a census-type household survey conducted in Melanjippattu village in the months of July and August, 2012. The household survey tried to estimate household incomes, ownership of assets and livestock in the cyclone year (2011–2012) and the previous year (2010–2011). The estimates of income include all incomes in cash and kind. It accounts for all cash and kind receipts other than from borrowing and from sale of assets. All incomes are net of costs earned by the households in the process of production and income generation. The study shows that effects of the cyclone were different for cultivators, non-agriculture workers and agriculture labour. Income differences between large landholders and marginal were huge, even in the disaster year. Large landholders could cope even if they did not return to cultivation immediately in contrast to small and medium farmers, who had to cultivate in the season immediately after the disaster. Study also points to the significance of income-generating schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which are critical in assisting agricultural labour and small farmer households, especially women-headed households, to cope with the aftermath of the disaster.