Geography & Natural Disasters
Case ReportArticle
Research
Siddiqui and Hossain, J Geogr Nat Disast 2013, 3:2
http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2167-0587.1000111
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Geographical Characteristics and the Components at Risk of Tornado in
Rural Bangladesh: A Case Study of Brahmanaria Tornado
MdRezwan Siddiqui* and Taslima Hossain*
Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka, Yunus Centre, Thailand
Abstract
On 22 March 2013, a tornado swept over the Brahmanaria and Akhura Sadar Upazila (sub-district) of Brahmanaria
district in Chittagong Division of Bangladesh and caused 35 deaths. There were also high levels of property damages.
The aim of this paper is to present the geographical characteristics of Brahmanaria tornado and the detail of damages
it has done. Through this we will assess the components at risk of tornado in the context of rural Bangladesh. Research
shows that, though small in nature and size, Brahmanaria tornado was very much catastrophic – mainly due to the lack
of awareness about this natural phenomenon. This tornado lasts for about 15 minutes and traveled a distance of 12
kilometer with an area of influence of 1 square kilometer of area. Poor and unplanned construction of houses and other
infrastructures was also responsible for 35 deaths, as these constructions were unable to give any kind of protection
during tornado. From this research, it has been seen that human life, poultry and livestock are mostly at risk of tornadoes
in case of rural Bangladesh. Inhabitants of this region are completely unaware of the life and property saving measures
necessary to take during tornado. This tornado caused high level of human death and casualties and it will take a long
time for the affected to overcome the losses.
Keywords: Tornado; Risk; Characteristics; Bangladesh; Brahmanaria
Methodology
Objective
The research has done with the combination of two methods.
An immediate field visit and survey to the tornado affected villages
was done on 26 March, 2013 by the researcher and his team. Several
interviews were taken to understand experience of the affected people,
to find out the elements at risks and also the nature of damages done
by the tornado.
Key objective of this research is to understand the geographical
characteristics of a tornado in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, there are
several tornadoes in different parts of the country. But for the lack of
proper source of data and identification system, they remain unnoticed
most of the time. The country has no tornado warning system, nor any
tracking or measurement system of tornado. As a result, no effort can
be taken to assess the elements at risk of tornado for the country, for
the lack of proper data.
A tornado database was developed by Jonathon Finch in 1996
which was highly generalized and lack of detail information about each
tornado in Bangladesh. So, a research like this is hoped to develop a
new way to learn about the tornado in context of Bangladesh [1].
Introduction
Many parts of Bangladesh are regarded as high risk zone for tornado.
During 1961-1996 local newspapers reported 10,766 tornado deaths.
During the thirty five-year period, twenty of 199 tornadoes killed more
than 100 people and seven of them killed more than 500 people [1]. On
an average 179 people dies every year tornado in Bangladesh [2]; most
of which become unnoticed because of highly localized in nature.
A violent tornado swept over the eastern part of Bangladesh in
Brahmanbaria Sadar Upazila (sub-district) and AkhauraUpazila (subdistrict) of Brahmanaria Districts on 22nd March 2013. The incident
occurred around 17:10 hours in local time (GMT +6) and lasts for 15
minutes [3].
The tornado track map was created using the local administrative
map, Google satellite image and GPS technology during field visit.
As in Bangladesh, there is no immediate source of tornado track or
location primarily the relative location of the tornado was identified
from the situation reports (Figure 1).
Local cadastral maps (scale 1:50000) were collected and was
overlapped with Google satellite images. Field maps were prepared
with identification of roads, rivers, important landmarks etc. During
the field visit the first attempt was to identify a point or place where
the tornado was first noticed. As the tornado left a track of damage, we
followed this track of damage and identified the tornado track, width,
area of influence and other characteristics of tornado. GPS was used to
precisely identify the location. Later on, all this data were compiled to
develop the tornado track and map (Figure 1).
*Corresponding authors: MdRezwan Siddiqui, Department of Geography
and Environment, University of Dhaka, Yunus Centre, Thailand, E-mail:
[email protected]
Taslima Hossain, Department of Geography and Environment, University of
Dhaka, Yunus Centre, Thailand, E-mail: [email protected]
The most significant feature of this tornado is there was no past
record of any tornadoes in Brahmanaria or surrounding areas [1,3].
As a result people of this area didn’t know about the characteristics of
the tornado and the necessary measure to save their life and properties.
Received July 23, 2013; Accepted August 29, 2013; Published September 04,
2013
The target of this research is to find out the geographical
characteristics of the tornado in Bangladesh also point out the elements
at risk of tornado in the perspective of rural Bangladesh.
Copyright: © 2013 Siddiqui MR, et al. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited.
J Geogr Nat Disast
ISSN: 2167-0587 JGND, an open access journal
Citation: Siddiqui MR, Hossain T (2013) Geographical Characteristics and the
Components at Risk of Tornado in Rural Bangladesh: A Case Study of Brahmanaria
Tornado. J Geogr Nat Disast 3: 111. doi:10.4172/2167-0587.1000111
Volume 3 • Issue 2 • 1000111
Citation: Siddiqui MR, Hossain T (2013) Geographical Characteristics and the Components at Risk of Tornado in Rural Bangladesh: A Case Study
of Brahmanaria Tornado. J Geogr Nat Disast 3: 111. doi:10.4172/2167-0587.1000111
Page 2 of 4
Figure 1: Track and area of influence of Brahmanbaria tornado.
Newspaper reports, situation reports by the government and
different NGO’s were collected and analysed to get the actual figure of
damages and relief facilities done after the tornado. From the analysis
of damage data, and the field survey the elements at risks of tornado
were identified.
Results and Discussion
Geographical coverage
The tornado travels a distance of more than 12 kilometer. The
tornado begins at Ram rail Village of Ram rail Union and ended at
Ahmedabad Village of North Akhaura Union. The identified villages
over which tornado traveled are listed in Table 1. Among them Dubla
is damaged most severely followed by Fulbaria and Chinnari among
thirteen villages of six unions reported to be visited by this tornado.
As observed from the field survey, the average radius of the
tornado on earth surface was sixty to eighty meter. It affected an area of
seventeen square kilometer [3], of which around one square kilometer
area was heavily damaged. Anything within this area was devastated.
Almost ninety percent of the causalities occurred within this area of
influence of the tornado.
Meteorological condition
The regional meteorological condition of affected area on the
tornado day (22 March, 2013) and during the tornado is in Table 2. It
was definitely very high temperature on that day of tornado occurrence.
At noon the average temperature of that area is more than 35°C and it
creates the perfect triggering factor for tornado.
J Geogr Nat Disast
ISSN: 2167-0587 JGND, an open access journal
Local peoples and government officials said that during the tornado
the wind speed was up to 70 km/hour (43.5 mile/hour). As there was
no local weather station, the exact meteorological details of the tornado
were unknown. According to the wind speed this tornado is within
F0 scale the Fujita Tornado Damage Scale this. In this scale this is the
lowest level of tornado [4](Figure 2).
According to the local people before the tornado on March
22, weather became cloudy suddenly. People thought that, it was a
Nor’wester. But when they saw the funnel shaped wind and cloud with
heavy rainfall, they begin to think that it was something different.
Damages
The Brahmanaria tornado is one of the severe disasters in this
region of the country. The total population of these unions are28913,
and 8615 have been affected partially or fully, which represents almost
29 percent of the total population of the affected areas (Table 3) [5]
Thousands of trees were uprooted [3], electric lines and poles
were heavily damaged. Tube wells were damaged and malfunctioned.
One of the most devastating features of the tornado was, it collapsed
200 feet boundary wall and 420 feet of security boundary wall of
Brahmanaria District Jail, which was highly fortified. The road and rail
communication was halted for several hours, mainly due to blockage
from tree fall.(Figure 3)
The most devastating effect of this tornado was the loss of thirty
five lives just within fifteen minutes. This was unbearable to the local
people. The dead bodies were reportedly found ten to thirty meter
away from the original spots [3]. The loss of means of livelihood, like
Volume 3 • Issue 2 • 1000111
Citation: Siddiqui MR, Hossain T (2013) Geographical Characteristics and the Components at Risk of Tornado in Rural Bangladesh: A Case Study
of Brahmanaria Tornado. J Geogr Nat Disast 3: 111. doi:10.4172/2167-0587.1000111
Page 3 of 4
Brahmanbaria District, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh
Upazila
Union
Brahmanbaria Sadar
Village(s)
Ramrail
Ramrail
Sultanpur
Fatirhata, Urshiura
Machihata
Fulbaria, Chandpur, Chinnari
Bashudeb
Bhatsala, Basudeb, Jarultola, Dubla,
Chandi
Bijoynagar
Pattan
KazlaBil
Akhaura
North Akhaura
Ahmedabad
( Field Survey, 2013), (DMIC, CDMP, MoDMR, 2013)
Table 1: Affected villages of Brahmanbaria Tornado.
Time (BDT)
Tempera
ture
Heat
Index
Wind
Direction
Wind
Speed
1007.29 hPa
13.7 km/h
79%
1005 hPa
SW
14.8 km/h
84%
1006 hPa
South
13.0 km/h
Humidity
Pressure
26.0 °C 32.45 °C
83%
16:50:00 hours 28.0 °C
31.9 °C
17:50:00 hours 28.0 °C
32.7 °C
Average of
the Day (22
March, 2013)
Source: (Weather Underground, Inc., 2013)
Table 2: Meteorological condition of the affected area on 22nd March, 2013.
completely destroyed. The roofs were blown away, wall collapsed;
home furniture and utensils were flown away to a further distance. The
brick built buildings were not spared. Most of the brick built houses
within the tornado track collapsed partially or fully, causing casualties.
The reason behind this is mainly poor construction.
Elements at risks
The Brahmanaria tornado caused heavy fatal damages to human and
animal life considering its small geographic nature and less intensity.
This is because of the completely unawareness of the population about
the tornado and the necessary measures to save life from tornado. If
those populations were aware of this natural hazard, such devastating
fatalities would never happen. This kind of unawareness about tornado
is very much common in rural Bangladesh. So, human life is top
element at risk of tornado in rural Bangladesh [6].
Loss of more than a thousand household livestock and poultry
is a massive economic loss for a rural area in Bangladesh. Peoples
livelihood and nutrition supply are dependent on these. So, these are
another most highly risked element for tornado in rural Bangladesh.
The houses were mainly teen shaded with wood and tin wall. There
were many brick built houses also. But all these houses were poorly
contrasted. Even the brick built houses were devastated by the tornado
–as they were not tornado resilient in any way. Moreover there were
no underground chambers of houses to take shelter during tornado. So
taking shelter within the houses did not help anyone from not getting
injured or killed.
Electricity supply was great hampered by the tornado, as the polls
were weak not tornado resistant.
From the field interviews and surveys, we can list following items
as at risk of tornado:
Figure 2: The Brahmanbaria Tornado. Source: YouTube video [4].
Sector of Damage
Deaths
Injured
Affected Families
Destroyed Houses
Affected Peoples
Affected Crops (Acre)
Number
35
388
Heavily
1,326
Partially
402
Fully
2,635
Partially
752
Fully
6,630
Partially
1,985
Fully
173
Partially
1,112
Affected Educational
Institutions
6
Affected Religious Institutions
5
Affected Road (km)
2.25
Livestock Death
299
Poultry Death
910
1. People without awareness about what to do during tornado.
Especially women and children
2. Livestock and poultry are heavily at risks
3. All types of houses and other structures like mosques, schools
etc.; as those are very poorly constructed.
4. Electricity, telephone and water services are also vulnerable.
Conclusion
There is a need of an extensive research to find out the adaptation
strategies for tornado in the context of rural Bangladesh. Bangladesh
is a densely populated country and for this reason any tornado with
(DMIC, CDMP, MoDMR, 2013)(Islam, 2013)
Table 3: Damages done by Brahmanbaria Tornado.
crops and livestock or poultry brought further havoc to their miseries.
These created a long lasting economic problem for the affected people.
Almost 1300 livestock and poultry died in this tornado, which are a
major source of income of people living in those villages.
In this area, the tin made houses were abandoned which was
J Geogr Nat Disast
ISSN: 2167-0587 JGND, an open access journal
Figure 3: Damages done by the Brahmanbaria tornado.
Volume 3 • Issue 2 • 1000111
Citation: Siddiqui MR, Hossain T (2013) Geographical Characteristics and the Components at Risk of Tornado in Rural Bangladesh: A Case Study
of Brahmanaria Tornado. J Geogr Nat Disast 3: 111. doi:10.4172/2167-0587.1000111
Page 4 of 4
small size and intensity can do a much greater loss to life and property
than any other countries in the world. Additionally, development of
tracking and warning system for tornado is also very important as thus
we can predict the vulnerability of any region and population.
References
1. Finch JD (1996) Bangladesh and East India Tornado Prediction Site
2. Paul BK, Bhuiyan RH (2004) The April 2004 Tornado in North-Central
Bangladesh: A Case for Introducing Tornado Forecasting and Warning
Systems. University of Colorado.
3. Islam AKMT (2013) The Aftermath of Tornado in Brahman Baria. Dhaka:
CDMP II, Ministry of Disaster Management & Relief.
4. Anulyno (2013) YouTube.
5. DMIC, CDMP, MoDMR, (2013) Situation Report on Tornado in Brahmanbaria.
Situation Report. Dhaka: Disaster Management Information Centre Ministry of
Disaster Management and Relief.
6. Weather Underground Inc (2013) Weather History for Chittagong, Bangladesh.
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Citation: Siddiqui MR, Hossain T (2013) Geographical Characteristics and
the Components at Risk of Tornado in Rural Bangladesh: A Case Study
of Brahmanaria Tornado. J Geogr Nat Disast 3: 111. doi:10.4172/21670587.1000111
J Geogr Nat Disast
ISSN: 2167-0587 JGND, an open access journal
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