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Bad communication sealed Kandla's fate

Syed Firdaus Ashraf

Guess how the Indian Meteorological Department communicates in this age of Internet, email and telephone? By telegram, maybe because then it's all nicely on paper. No wonder then that when a cyclone off the Gujarat coast made a unscheduled detour the officials did not know what was coming into Kandla on June 9.

Of course, in the first place, the IMD has no full-fledged office at the Kandla Port Trust. They have a part-time unit there though, run by KPT officials working between 0930 hours and 1730 hours.

These officials lack sophisticated equipment to locate cyclones themselves, but receive signals from the Ahmedabad Meteorological Department by telegram twice in morning and in the evening at 1600 hours. These are brought in an hour later by the postmen and depending on what that telegram says, the signal is sent out to the ships.

According to the jargon, signal VIII signifies danger and that a severe storm of great intensity is expected to cross the coast to the south of the port. Signal X indicates that the port itself is in danger from a storm. And that is where the Kandla port authorities were deceived.

"On June 7, we got a signal VIII message whereas the IMD should have alerted us with a signal X message. Only then could we have saved more lives," says a KPT official.

But on June 8, the weather bureau had stated that "a cyclone of a very severe nature lay centered 400 km southwest of Veraval, Gujarat, this morning, and was likely to intensify and move in a northern direction for some time."

It further added that the cyclone would later turn north-northeast, cross the Gujarat coast between Veraval and Dwarka by June 9 morning or afternoon and could reach Rajasthan by Wednesday morning or afternoon.

Under its influence, gales with wind speeds of 100 kph to 125 kph were expected along the Gujarat coast and heavy to very heavy rainfall was expected in the coastal districts of Gujarat that evening. Nowhere did the message suggest that winds at 195 kph would enter the Kutch district. Meaning, of course, that though Kandla would not enjoy a sunny day, it would not be devastated either.

Acting accordingly, the Gujarat government began evacuating people from Jamnagar and Dwarka since the cyclone was suppose to hit these two places. It did not. The cyclone suddenly swerved, almost maliciously, towards unprepared Kandla, which had never experienced a cyclone in the last 50 years.

When the winds came, KPT officials and the state government were caught unawares. For they had not even been told about the cyclone's change of route.

Another reason for the death toll was the communication gap between KPT and Gujarat government officials.

KPT officials and the Gandhidham police inspector had held an emergency meeting on June 8 to discuss what should be done in the unlikely case of the cyclone hitting Kandla.

"At the meeting, it was decided that the police inspector should remain alert... and make necessary arrangements of vehicles to shift people to safer place and to make all necessary arrangements," says a KPT spokesperson, adding, "So it was not our responsibility to evacuate the people."

This was pointed out to Kutch Collector Mukesh Puri, but he says he cannot comment since the matter is sub judice.

However, collectorate sources say the KPT had always been responsible for evacuating people in the Kandla area. They say that during the meeting of June 8 the Gandhidham police had been made responsible for evacuating the people, not the Kandla police, which should rightfully have been called in.

"So there is no way the KPT can blame the Gujarat government for dereliction of duty. In fact, the Gandhidham police had arranged vehicles for the people to be evacuated in case of a cyclone. And they did that too, on June 9," says one government official.

He further points out that at a meeting last year KPT and Gujarat government officials had decided that in case of heavy rains KPT officials would take responsibility for evacuating people in Kandla.

Regardless of blame, the KPT also did not know that the cyclone was going to hit its port.

For on the morning of June 9, the telegraphic link between the Kandla post office and the Ahmedabad IMD was disturbed. So, the signal X message did not reach the Kandla post office.

"We received this telegram on June 15. By then everything was over," says a KPT official.

"Had there been a direct phone or fax facility from the Ahmedabad IMD to KPT, we could have saved more lives," he says.

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