Reporting the Disaster
The earthquake at Koyna dam provided an interesting study in social response to a natural disaster. The event occurred in a relatively rural area of Western India in 1967. With global information flow somewhat slower 35 years ago than it is today, news of the earthquake, which shook the area at 22:50 GMT on December 10th (4:20 a.m. local time on December 11th), did not reach worldwide newspapers until the December 12 edition. This is true of the New York Times, the London Times and the national paper, the Times of India.
Interestingly, both the New York Times and the London Times ran small, third-page articles about the earthquake on December 12. A survey of both papers reveals no updated information being printed on the 13th, 14th or 15th. Indeed, it appears that the story was not big news in those countries and got very little press. This news coverage deficiency is most likely attributable to both the lack of readership interest in distant, underdeveloped nations and to the relatively small number of deaths (less than 200), which diminished the human-drama value of the story.
The fact that the United States was still at war in Vietnam in 1967 may also have contributed to the meager reporting there. Like today, most of the press focused myopically on the war. Headlines in the United Kingdom concentrated on the upcoming inaugural flight of the Concord, the first supersonic passenger jet.
In India, the Koyna earthquake made front-page, headline news. The drama of the event occurring locally increased the stories newsworthiness in that country. The Times of India also ran daily updates on the crisis at least for the next several days; providing updates on the human impact of the disaster with each subsequent story.
Emergency Response and Short-Term Aid
At the local level, immediate aid came in the form of rescue parties, dispatched from several nearby townships including Chiplun and Karad. They worked to free people trapped under debris and transport the injured to a hospital in Karad. Doctors were brought in from the larger city of Poona with medical equipment for onsite treatment in Koyna Nagar. By the second day of rescue operations, the Karad hospital was overflowing, with over 250 patients being treated outdoors. Rescue workers started moving people with more serious injuries to four less crowded hospitals in neighboring cities (Times of India 1967(A)).
Rescue workers were initially dispatched to Koyna Nagar because it is the township closest to the dam. They worked their way outwards (away from the dam) towards each of the ~50 villages in the area affected by the earthquake. The combination of distance from one village to the next and the amount of damage encountered at the villages nearest the epicenter left about 40 of the villages without medical aid for 2 days (Times of India 1967(B)).
The federal government sent Army troops into the affected areas to coordinate evacuation of the more than 5000 individuals rendered homeless from the damage. One hundred transport buses and trucks were provided by the Maharashtra state government for this effort. A bridge on the approach road to Koyna Nagar was badly damaged, and Army personnel were tasked with immediate construction of a diversionary road as part of the restoration effort (Times of India 1967(A)).
The Indian Prime Minister allocated Rs 200,000 to the state for relief operations, while the state itself announced that it would provide cash relief directly to the victims. There was no specific mention of how the funds would be distributed. Since most of the people affected by the earthquake were living in very small, agricultural villages, it is reasonable to assume that funds would have been equitably distributed amongst those who lost their homes. Unlike city dwelling populations, these villages didn't necessarily have internal class distinctions. Entire villages were built using similar construction techniques, all without earthquake reinforcement. This led to the loss of every single house in many villages (New York Times 1967; Times of India 1967(A)).
The Times of India and Nav Bharat Times newspapers started an Earthquake Relief Fund to collect money to "relieve the distress of the earthquake victims in Koyna Nagar and other towns and villages." The newspapers allocated Rs 5000 initially, and promised to print the names of all donors who contributed Rs 10 or more to the fund. At the initial printing of the notice, they had already collected Rs 303 (presumably from employees at the paper), and included the names of those individuals as part of the announcement (Times of India 1967(D)).
Reconstruction
There is little documentation on the specific progress of reconstruction. In some cases, individual buildings, like the dormitory at St. Joseph's Covenant, were reconstructed from special donations provided by religious organizations and parish-goers.
Government relief funds were used for reconstruction of roads, culverts and bridges. Immediately after the event, the State Revenue Minister announced that tin sheets and bamboo would be provided to displaced persons to rebuild houses, though further research could not verify when or whether this distribution occurred (Amateur Seismic Centre; Times of India 1967(B)).
Long-Term Impacts
Prior to the dam construction, the area around Koyna was considered seismically stable. Unfortunately, the 1967 earthquake turned out to be just the first in a series of earthquakes that have periodically shaken the state of Maharashtra right up to the present day. Although none of the subsequent earthquakes have reached the magnitude levels associated with the 1967 quake, further injury and destruction have resulted from these seismic events on multiple occasions. The state also lies atop several other earthquake faults. On September 30, 1993, an earthquake on the eastern side of Maharashtra, centered in Khilari, killed over 9000 people (Amateur Seismic Centre).
These events have led to the development of a formal, comprehensive Disaster Management Plan (DMP) by the Maharashtra state government. The DMP has three main components, which are risk analysis and vulnerability assessment, mitigation strategy, and a response plan. The Maharashtra disaster management project, which encompasses the DMP and the development of a disaster communication network, cost US $11 million or roughly Rs 500 million. The project became fully operational in March 2000 (Chhibber 2001).
