Disaster Management in India What is a Disaster?

Disaster Management in India

What is a Disaster?

A disaster is defined as a disruption on a massive scale, either natural or man-made, occurring in short or long periods of time. Disasters can lead to human, material, economic or environmental hardships, which can be beyond the bearable capacity of the affected society. As per statistics, India as a whole is vulnerable to 30 different types of disasters that will affect the economic, social and human development potential to such an extent that it will have long-term effects on productivity and macro-economic performance.

Disasters can be classified into the following categories:

1. Water and Climate Disaster:

 Flood, hail storms, cloudbursts, cyclones, heat waves, cold waves, droughts, hurricanes.

Geological Disaster: Landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes

2. Biological Disaster: 

Viral epidemics, pest attacks, cattle epidemics and locust plagues

Industrial Disaster: 

Chemical and industrial accidents, mine shaft fires, oil spills,

Nuclear Disasters: 

Nuclear core meltdowns, radiation poisoning

Man-made disasters: 

Urban and forest fires, oil spills, the collapse of huge building structures

What is Disaster Management?

Per the Disaster Management Act of 2005 defines Disaster Management as an integrated process of planning, organizing, coordinating and implementing measures which are necessary for-

1. Prevention of threat of any disaster

2. 2. Reduction of risk of any disaster or its consequences

3. Ready to deal with any disaster

4. Promptness in dealing with a disaster

5. 3. Assessing the severity of the effects of any disaster

6. 4. Rescue and relief

7. Rehabilitation and Reconstruction

Agencies involved in Disaster Management

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA):- 

The National Disaster Management Authority, or the NDMA, is an apex body for disaster management, headed by the Prime Minister of India. It is responsible for the supervision, direction and control of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

National Executive Committee (NEC):- 

The NEC is composed of high-profile ministerial members from the government of India that include the Union Home Secretary as Chairperson, and the Secretaries to the Government of India (GoI)like Ministries/Departments of Agriculture, Atomic Energy, Defence, Drinking Water Supply, Environment and Forests etc. The NEC prepares the National Plan for Disaster Management as per the National Policy on Disaster Management.

State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA):- 

The Chief Minister of the respective state is the head of the SDMA.The State Government has a State Executive Committee (SEC) which assists the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) in Disaster Management.

District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA):-

 The DDMA is headed by the District Collector, Deputy Commissioner or District Magistrate depending on the situation, with the elected representatives of the local authority as the Co-Chairperson. The DDMA ensures that the guidelines framed by the NDMA and the SDMA are followed by all the departments of the State Government at the District level and the local authorities in the District.

Local Authorities:- 

Local authorities would include Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI), Municipalities, District and Cantonment 11 Institutional and Legal Arrangements Boards, and Town Planning Authorities which control and manage civic services.

Causes for Occurrence of Disaster

Environmental degradation: 

Removal of trees and forest cover from a watershed area has caused, soil erosion, expansion of flood plain area in upper and middle course of rivers and groundwater depletion.

Developmental process: 

Exploitation of land use, development of infrastructure, rapid urbanization and technological development have caused increasing pressure over natural resources.

Political issues: 

War, nuclear power aspirations, fight between countries to become a superpower and conquer land, sea and skies. These have resulted in a wide range of disaster events such as the Hiroshima nuclear explosion, the Syrian civil war, growing militarisation of oceans and outer space.

Industrialization: 

This has resulted in the warming of the earth and the frequency of extreme weather events has also increased.

Impacts of Disaster

# Disaster impacts individuals physically (through loss of life, injury, health, disability) as well as psychologically.

# Disaster results in huge economic loss due to the destruction of property, human settlements and infrastructure etc.

# Disasters can alter the natural environment, loss of habitat to many plants and animals and cause ecological stress that can result in biodiversity loss.

# After natural disasters, food and other natural resources like water often become scarce resulting in food and water scarcity.

# The disaster results in the displacement of people, and displaced populations often face several challenges in new settlements, in this process the poorer becomes poorer.

# Disaster increases the level of vulnerability and hence multiplies the effects of the

disaster.

Vulnerability Profile of India

India is vulnerable, in varying degrees, to a large number of disasters. Around 59% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of moderate to very high intensity.

About 12% (over 40 million hectares) of its land is prone to floods and river erosion.

Close to 5,700 km, out of the 7,516 km long coastline is prone to cyclones and tsunamis.

68% of its cultivable area is vulnerable to droughts; and, the hilly areas are at risk from landslides and avalanches.

Moreover, India is also vulnerable to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) emergencies and other man-made disasters.

Disaster risks in India are further compounded by increasing vulnerabilities related to changing demographics and socio-economic conditions, unplanned urbanization, development within high-risk zones, environmental degradation, climate change, geological hazards, epidemics and pandemics.

Clearly, all of these contribute to a situation where disasters seriously threaten India’s economy, its population and sustainable development.

There are three key stages of activities in disaster management:

1.Before a disaster:

to reduce the potential for human, material, or environmental losses caused by hazards and to ensure that these losses are minimised when disaster strikes;

2. During a disaster:

to ensure that the needs and provisions of victims are met to alleviate and minimise suffering; and

3. After a disaster:

to achieve rapid and durable recovery which does not reproduce the original vulnerable conditions.

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

Disaster risk reduction is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyse and reduce the causal factors of disasters.

Pre-Disaster risk reduction includes-

Mitigation:

To eliminate or reduce the impacts and risks of hazards through proactive measures taken before an emergency or disaster occurs.

Preparedness:

To take steps to prepare and reduce the effects of disasters.

Post-Disaster risk reduction includes-

Rescue:

Providing warning, evacuation, search, rescue, providing immediate assistance.

Relief:

To respond to communities who become victims of disaster, providing relief measures such as food packets, water, medicines, temporary accommodation, relief camps etc.

Recovery:

This stage emphasises upon recovery of victims of disaster, recovery of damaged infrastructure and repair of the damages caused.

Organisations related to Disaster Management Framework at Global level

In 1994 the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction was held in Yokohama, Japan.

The conference adopted the Yokohama strategy and declared the decade 1990-2000 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) is the successor to the secretariat of IDNDR and was created in 1999 to implement the UN Disaster Risk Reduction strategy.

The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) is a 10-year plan (2005-2015) to make the world safer from natural hazards.

The Sendai Framework.

Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030

Organisations Policies related to Disaster Management Framework at the National level

National Disaster Management Authority of India (NDMA)

It was established in 2005, under the Disaster Management Act 2005.

The objective of NDMA is, to build a safer and disaster-resilient India through a holistic, proactive, technology-driven and sustainable development strategy.

The NDMA is chaired by the Prime Minister of India and has a vice chairman with the status of Cabinet Minister and eight members with the status of Ministers of State.

The NDMA Secretariat is headed by a Secretary and deals with mitigation, preparedness, plans, reconstruction, community awareness and financial and administrative aspects.

National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP)

It was released in 2016, it is the first-ever national plan prepared in the country for disaster management.

With National Disaster Management Plan (2016) India has aligned its National plan with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, to which India is a signatory.

The objective of the plan is to make India disaster resilient, and achieve substantial disaster risk reduction. It aims to significantly decrease the losses of life, livelihoods, and assets in terms of economic, physical, social, cultural, and environmental. To maximize the ability to cope with disasters at all levels of administration as well as among communities.

State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA)

At the State level, State Disaster Management Authorities were established under the Disaster Management Act 2005.

SDMA is chaired by the Chief Minister of the State and has not more than eight members who are appointed by the Chief Minister.

The SDMA prepares the state disaster management plan and implements the National Disaster Management Plan.

District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA)

Under Disaster Management Act 2005, every State government shall establish a DDMA for every district in the State.

The DDM Authority shall consist of:

Chairperson - the Collector or District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner act as Chairperson of DDMA.

Co-Chairperson - is the elected representative of the local authority. In the Tribal Areas, the Chief Executive Member of the district council of the autonomous district is the co-chairperson.

There are not more than seven other members in DDMA.

The Disaster Management Committee governed under District Magistrate will formulate village-level disaster management plans for concerned villages.

The DDMA makes District Disaster Management Plan and implements the state Disaster Management Plan