Indigenous coping mechanisms in managing multihazard risks of cyclone: a case study on santa village in Khulna district

Abstract

Cyclone is a periodic natural disaster in coastal regions of Bangladesh. Coastalpeoples are vulnerable due to the effects of cyclone and associated multi-hazard impact thatchanges their livelihood pattern. The study area was conducted at Santa village in KhulnaDistrict, a major coastal zone of Bangladesh. A wide range of cyclonic hazards includingstorm surges, water logging and salinity are threaten the lives and livelihoods in this village.Therefore, Peoples are adopted indienous coping knowledge to keep safe their life andproperty. This paper is designed to explore the hazards associated with cyclone and localpeople coping strategies against its concerted risks. So, there is a scope to identify andmapping the cyclonic hazards zone to protect their structure, agriculture, occupation, andlivestock. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is a valuable tool to identify the hazards zoneand share of opinion easily identify the local coping technique that are being used. Peoples areused traditional knowledge on housing structure, agriculture, consumption, occupation andlivelihood pattern to reduce the risks of cyclone. People also used various safety mechanismsto lessen the negative impact of cyclone without outside assistance. Effective indigenousawareness system, integrate local coping practice with modern technology and improvesocioeconomic condition in a sustainable way are necessary to reduce the losses from multihazardrisk of cyclone.