The objective of this paper is to explore people's survival strategies and coping capacities to combat monga at household level in the northern region of Bangladesh. The agriculture based rural economy, extreme poverty, high percentage of landless, lack of sufficient caloric intake, unemployment of vast agricultural labour force etc. are the root causes of vulnerability to monga in the northern regions specifically few districts of greater Rangpur. Moreover, geographically this region is vulnerable to natural hazards such as floods and droughts. The past records of food shortages and famine reveal that the trend is still continuing in the monga-prone areas. The present study found that the most vulnerable groups in the monga-prone areas were agricultural wage labourers, landless and marginal farmers, female headed households, children, pregnant women and aged people. The present study also found that with a view to cope with the monga, various coping strategies such as selling of labour with advance payment at cheap rate, borrowing of money, selling of assets, looking for work in other areas, dependency on relief, selling of field crops in advance at cheap rate etc. were adopted by the affected households. The present study also found that coping capacity was associated with household head's socio-economic status e.g. level of education, monthly income, types of occupation, etc. Vulnerability to monga was higher for the illiterate and low income groups than the educated and high income groups. The present study argues that the policy makers of Government and NGOs should emphasize on enhancing of coping capacities of poor and marginalized groups through rural centric development, rural employment generation, maximum utilization of agricultural land, proper credit support and agro-based industrialisation in the northern Bangladesh.

The objective of this paper is to assess post-cyclone livelihood capitals status, identify major livelihood groups, adversity and crisis, and present the livelihood strategies of coastal households. Based on a questionnaire survey at household level, a total 331 out of 792 households are selected through simple random sampling from three purposively selected villages in the central coast of Bangladesh. Both descriptive and inferential statistics are used to analyse data. The present study identifies wage labour, fisher and farmer as major livelihood groups. Among the three villages, Island reveals less livelihood capitals than inland and shoreline. Although natural capital of Island is relatively higher, however, scarcity of other capitals hinders proper utilization of the potentials of such capital. Social capital of Island is significantly lower than other two villages, which unveils relatively lesser social coherence of Islanders, and which is most important to survive in post-cyclone situation. Likewise, among the livelihood groups, wage labourer owes less livelihood capitals than farmer and fishermen. Majority of the households irrespective of their village locations identifies recurrent cyclones and induced storm surges as major adversities which significantly destroys their livelihoods. Therefore, households in study villages diversify income sources wherever possible and most importantly while face the crisis. In general, livelihoods of Islanders and Shoreline villagers, wage labourer and fish fry collectors are most vulnerable to any cyclone events. Hence, the present study advocates for identifying vulnerable locations and livelihood groups, and livelihood capitals building for such groups and promoting coordinated disaster risk reduction programs to mitigate cyclone impacts and providing assistance for rebuilding post-cyclone livelihoods.