Be it communal riots in Kandhamal district or poll violence in Brahmapur city or the latest cyclonic storm Phailin in Ganjam district, IAS officer Krishan Kumar was always at the forefront of facing crises.
The District Magistrate and Collector of Ganjam himself picked up the baton and rushed to Gopalpur before the Phailin had its landfall there at a speed of about 220 km per hour, to ensure that no one was within a 5 km radius of the seacoast. Dr Kumar, an MBBS-turned-IAS officer of the Odisha cadre worked without sleep for about 100 hours to save human lives from the impending cyclone. Assisted by other officers and the police, he ensured a massive evacuation of people from vulnerable areas to higher ground.
For the record, Krishan Kumar, 37, of the 2002 IAS batch had earlier worked as the Chairman of the Brahmapur Development Authority and also as the Collector of Sundargarh and Kandhamal districts. He hails from Haryana.
“Our aim was to keep casualties to a minimum. Hence, we did everything we could to evacuate people from close to the coast,” Kumar said. Out of the total death toll of 21 in the cyclone, 10 were reported from the worst-hit Ganjam district. “We started preparations from Wednesday (October 8) as soon as we got warning about the impending calamity,” he said. “From identifying vulnerable areas to designating 1,060 Government buildings as cyclone shelters and readying plans for post-disaster relief and restoration efforts, we did everything in quickest possible time,” he said.
“We created necessary awareness and applied pressure (for evacuation). Reluctance was natural and we encountered problems. Finally, people gave in,” he pointed out. By Saturday, October 12, about 1.4 lakh people were officially evacuated. By 4 pm, thousands swarmed to the cyclone shelters, which housed an estimated 3.5 people through the night.