Population
The population of Orissa is 35 million, of which 86% of the people are rural and only 14% are urban.  There are 62 different tribes which make up 23% of the country’s tribal population.  There are 971 females as against 1000 males.

Education
The overall literacy rate is 53% but the female literacy rate is only 35%.

Culture and religion
Orissa has a mixed population with people of different religions living in closely bound communities.  The majority of the people are Hindu.

Health and sanitation
The infant mortality rate is 98 as against 1000 births.  53% of the population is malnourished and only 49% of the people have access to safe drinking water.

Economy and occupation
Orissa is economically the second lowest state in India.  The chief occupation is fishing and agriculture, chiefly, rice and paddy cultivation.  2,50,000 children are employed in child labour. 

Geographical information
It covers an area of 155,707 square kilometres.  The state of Orissa has 30 districts and 314 blocks.  Orissa is amongst the states most vulnerable to natural hazards. The unique geological features, geographical position and behaviour of monsoon make this region among the most natural hazard prone in the country. It is vulnerable to Cyclones, Floods, and Earthquakes and certain areas of Orissa are high-risk zones vulnerable to all these hazards.

The risk of natural disasters

Orissa is a multi-hazard prone state requiring drought proof mitigation in the western parts and mitigation related to floods and cyclone in the eastern deltaic coastal parts of the state.  In the recent past Orissa was ravaged by two major calamities, the Super cyclone in 1999 and the flash floods of 2001 between which there was a drought spell in 2000.  

The Super cyclone in 1999
This was experienced in 14 coastal districts with wind speeds as high as 300 km/h.  The damage caused was enormous with a death toll of 8,495 people about 4,50,000 cattle.  2 million houses were destroyed and 23,000 schools were damaged.  Power supply was disrupted in 19,062 villages and all means of communication was paralysed for a few days.

The drought in 2000
This affected 28 districts.  The rainfall shortage caused a failure of Kharif crop.  There was 3.9 lakh hectare loss of paddy land which, when converted into money value, resulted in a loss of 6.64 billion rupees. 7.6 lakh farming households were affected leading to starvation, death and migration. 11% of the children were acutely malnourished and there was an increase in child labour and bonded labour.            

The Floods 2001
This affected 24 districts, which included 219 blocks and 18,790 villages.  9.678 million people were affected with a recorded death toll of 102. 9 million hectares of crop was lost which amounted to a loss of 14.83 million USD.  2,50,615 houses were damaged. 

In Orissa, 78% of the population lives in the villages and most of the houses are kutcha -made of bamboo, mud and thatch. These houses are not only vulnerable to natural disasters, but also require high maintenance costs and periodic replacement of building materials. Two million houses were damaged after the super cyclone, while the floods damaged another 275 thousand. The housing gap soared from 60% after the Super cyclone to even more after the floods. The Government of Orissa had initiated the rehabilitation of 350 thousand homeless after the Super cyclone under various housing schemes of which 125 thousand houses have been completed. After the floods, rehabilitation for 100 thousand houses has been announced so far.

After the cyclone, 6 lakh IAY houses were allotted for coastal Orissa by the government of India.  These could hardly get complete basically due to lack of technical know-how and shortage of skilled manpower.