Reply #19: Their policy analysis is here [View All]

http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/

but this report doesn't seem to be up yet.

Curiously, a paper published by G.S. Mandal (erstwhile deputy dir. general of meteorology, Mausam Bhavan, New Delhi) in 1993 suggested that losses due to cyclones has dropped precipitously since the first substantive recordings in the early 18th century. To be sure, we cannot be sure that 300,000 people died in the 1737 cyclone in West Bengal, and the colonial administration had every reason to exaggerate, but where population is located has a great deal to do with such losses.

By the bye, the occurrence of natural disasters in the subcontinent has remained pretty constant over the last 300 years. Like the stock market, one must look over the long duree.