Migration of Indigenous Coastal Communities due to Coastal Flooding in Indus Delta after Nanuk Tropical Cyclone

Pakistan is a coastal country (Arabian sea) with 1000 km longer coastline which lies south of the country. Karachi, Ormara, Pasni, and Gwadar are the major seaports. Tropical cyclones are not new for Pakistan. Pakistan has been affected by the several cyclones in few past decades. It is also a region of south Asian monsoon which occurs during June and July and receives heavy and torrential rainfall. Satellite Remote Sensing (SRS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) is used here for identifying the effects of the 2014 cyclone (named as "Nanauk" of category-I) on Indus delta's (wetland) landcovers and the community. Tropical storm Nanauk formed in the west of India on June 10, 2014, and hits the coastal areas on 11 June, 2014. The objectives of this study were to; 1) analyze the extent of flooding in Indus delta, 2) to check that after four years of cyclone how many villages/communities returned to their homes and 3) to identify the areas where they migrated at the time of flooding. For 2nd objective, only three tehsils (Ghorabari, Keti Bander and Kharochan) of Thatta district along the three creeks (Khobar, Hajambro, and Turshian) of Indus delta were selected. Landsat-8 satellite images have been used on 10 may(pre-cyclone), 26 may(pre-cyclone), 11 June(during-cyclone) and 27 June(post-cyclone) used to map the flooding extent. Initially, villages were marked using Google earth and Landsat 8 were used to identify the inundated villages. The current status of the inundated villages was checked on google earth which shows that the villages were destroyed, and no boats are standing near the villages as compared to the pre-cyclone images (January and March 2014). The dates of satellite images in Google is not certain, so we requested digital globe for the provision of satellite images to confirm this damage. Digital globe provided images of before cyclones (1st March 2014) which confirms the existence of these villages. Total 27 villages were marked, 18 inundated, 7 Migrated, three relocated and eight returned. The results show that the return ratio of the communities is only 44%, only 16 %return and relocated within the delta and 38% never returned.