Disasters in Kurigram

Disaster is a sudden, calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, and destruction and devastation to life and property (Kale and Kutemate, 2011). The damage caused by disasters is immeasurable and varies with the geographical location, climate and the type of earth surface or degree of vulnerability. This influences the mental, socio-economic, political and cultural state of the affected area (Biswas et al., 2013).Bangladesh is currently ranked as one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries and its geo-physical location makes the country prone to various hazards e.g. floods, river erosions, droughts, arsenic, cyclones,storms, earthquakes, etc. which cause immense losses of lives and damage to properties, livelihoods and economic infrastructure (Dilley, 2005, UNDP, 2004).About 97.1 percent of its total area and 97.7 percent of the total population at risk of multiple hazards, including floods, riverbank and drought (Dilley, 2005). Kurigram faces at least one major disaster likely flood per year (Chakraborty et al., 2016). In the last 10 years it has lost the highest disaster mortality rate in th5s region.. The economy of Kurigram is highly dependent on agriculture and, at large, a major constraint for the sustainable and stable growth of food production in Bangladesh is the fact that natural calamities of different types have made the people vulnerable to crop failures and food scarcities which accelerating poverty intensification in the country (Rasul and Thapa, 2003). The high vulnerability to flood, drought, landslides, river bank erosion and some other hazards have evolved a unique condition of existence in Bangladesh, especially in the North-western regions . This region has additional risk features particularly because the region is bounded by hilly areas of India and become seasonally prone to flash flood from the upstream of Indian rivers. In recent years from 2011 to 2015 abnormal floods have increased significantly, causing serious damage to lives and property which is most exposed to Northwest Rangpur Division of Bangladesh (Sarker and Rashid, 2013). Given this backdrop, the ability to respond, cope, adapt or recover from the overexposure of natural hazards have emerged as the central question of survival – the core challenge for people in everyday life especially in the Northwest regions of Bangladesh (Anik and Khan, 2012).