Social capital for disaster risk reduction and management with empirical evidences from Sundarbans of India

Social capital is a resource which is embedded in every community and it has been observed that it plays an important role in different stages of a disaster. Social capital can be crucial for a community to survive till outside help arrives, in event of a disaster, and many a time it is the only resource that the community can mobilize to respond and recover. This research paper reviewed the contribution of social capital with different empirical evidences from cases across the world and brought it into the perspective of the study area in Sundarbans, India. The study area is frequented by disasters like tropical cyclones and surges, it was observed that the network at the community level is crucial for survival of the community. It also was observed that social capital acts like an informal insurance in cases of small scale disasters. Social capital is more relevant in this remote study area as it compensates for the gaps in basic infrastructure and proper disaster management institutions. Thus, proper mobilization of social capital can really be an asset to communities living in remote hazardous area. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.