1.

What is Disaster- Disaster is defined as Catastrophic situation in which the normal pattern of life or ecosystem has been disrupted and extra-ordinary emergency interventions are required to save and preserve lives and or the environment. 2. 5 Categories of Disaster as per High Powered Committee (headed by JC Pant) is given below a. Water and Climate related disasters flood, drought, cyclones etc. b. Geologically related disasters Earthquake, landslides, mine fires etc. c. Chemical, Industrial and Nuclear disaster d. Accident related disaster Oil Spill, Bomb Blast, forest fires, building collapse. e. Biologically related disaster epidemics, pest attacks. 3. Some Important facts which could be used in any answer on Disaster Management i. As per world disaster report 2010, 85 percent of the people affected by disasters belonged to the Asia Pacific region. In Asia India and Bangladesh are most affected due to geographical and topographical features. ii. As per vulnerability atlas, prepared by Building Material Technology Promotion Council, 60% of geographical area in India is earthquake prone, 68% - drought prone, 12% flood prone and 8% cyclone prone. 4. Hyogo Framework of action on Disaster Reduction -It advocated mainstream Disaster Risk Reduction into socio economic development planning by adopting 5 priorities for action. (How to reduce the impact of Disaster) i. Political Processes develop policies and legislations for Disaster Risk Reduction and commit resources for mitigation, prevention and preparedness, proactively.

ii.

iii.

iv.

v.

Technological Process Application of S&T in establishing early warning signals with the help of satellite imagery so that people could be informed about the disaster well in advance. Socio-Education process building a culture of safety and awareness. DRR can be included in the school curricula. Developmental process- Incorporating disaster risk in all relevant sectors of development planning and programmes. Humanitarian Process systemic and well planned Rescue, Relief, Rehabilitation, Rebuilding and Readjustment

It also advocated mainstreaming of DRR and disaster insurance in all human activities. 5. Components of DRR a. b. c. Vulnerability Risk Assessment. Disaster Planning. Information dissemination through warning signals.

d. Setting up an institutional mechanism for disaster management.

e. f. g. Education about disasters Mock drills/demos Dedicated response mechanism

6. Disaster Management Act, 2005 It provides for Institutional mechanism at the central, state and district level for

Objectives a. Implementation of Disaster Management Plans. b. Prevention and Mitigation of Disasters. c. Co-ordinate a response in case of a disaster 2. It also provide of NDMA with PM as the head, SDMA -with CM as the head and DDMA- DC as the administrative head.

1.

3. Act also provides for Budget allocation for DRR and for response. 4. National Disaster response fund (to meet any disaster response) and Disaster Mitigation Fund (for mitigating the disaster) at the district level. 5. It also provides for no discrimination in providing relief and compensation. 6. Provides penalties for false claim and misappropriation. 7.Other Institutional Mechanisms a. Central Relief Commissioner in Home Ministry is nodal officer. b. Crisis Management Group- Chaired by CRC with members from each ministry. c. National Crisis Management Committee- chaired by cabinet secretary gives direction to CMG. d. Control Room under Home Ministry and functions round the clock to support CRC. e. Contingency Action Plan. f. State Relief Manual 8. Issues and Challenges in Disaster Management a. Poor integration of DRR into plans Finance Ministry had requested all official to certify that DRR elements have been incorporate into the new projects. Unfortunately this has not been followed in letter and spirit as the officials do not have adequate skills for that. E.g RKVY and JNNURM have but not IAY, RAY etc b. Weak compliance of policies and nonstarting of most of the projects in 11th FYP c. Institutions of NDMA, SDMA and DDMA have been formed but are not that active and operations d. More disaster management professional are required for capacity building and creating awareness.

e. National Disaster response fund (to meet any disaster response) and Disaster Mitigation Fund (for mitigating the disaster) at the district level have not been setup till now. f. Early warning system for percolation of information till the last mile. g. Empowering the community / local bodies to deal with risk reduction. h. Adoption of IT and Innovative solutions. i. Less understanding of methodology to adopt for risk assessment. j. Deviation in patterns of natural disaster in India. k. Traditional knowledge in dealing with disasters have been forgotten or not practices Question from Past years Write Answers of these 1. In India, there appears to be more disaster of management that management of disasters 2. India has failed to devise a long term strategy for drought management. 3. It is argued that the Bhopal Gas disaster and the response pattern to it reflect multiple vulnerabilities relating to system of corporate social responsibilities, governance at local, state and central levels, and legal safeguard and liabilities. Comment on this assessment. 4. Identify the different conceptual categories of disasters. 5. Write a note on new culture of disaster management. 6. Disaster Insurance is desirable but not an easy proposition to implement. Illustrate with an example.

Additional Topics may be used in the answers

1. Impact of disasters i. High Human and Economic Loss, around 2% of GDP of India is lost due to disasters. ii. Poor people are the worst affected. iii. It may not lead to inclusive growth iv. Increase in health hazards. v. Unavailability of water for agricultural purposes. vi. Extreme events could disturb the drainage pattern of the cities 2. Schemes which provide for DRR i. RKVY to take care of extreme weather events and JNNURM. ii. Most of the schemes of Rural Development could have significant impact in DRR 1. PMGSY Lifeline connectivity in challenging times. 2. IAY A small component of it can be used for those affected by disasters. Change in norms is required in IAY to incorporate DRR in the construction itself. A major weakness of IAY is the quality of housing. 3. RGNDWM provides potable water to all villages, in the event of disaster, a component is earmarked for emergency tube wells. 3. Post Disaster Impact Assessment and Funding Mechanism i. Disaster Impact Assessment 1. It is the amount of direct loss associated with the disaster based on replacement value on current prices. Indirect loss is considered when the project was funded by multilateral agencies. The present method only covers the stock and not the flow. 2. It helps in assessing economic recovery plan and reconstruction program. 3. It also helps us in providing information about the impact on various sectors of economy. ii. Damage - It is defined as the total or partial destruction of physical assets existing in the affected areas- it helps in estimating reconstruction needs whereas Loss change in economic advantage due to damage, helps in assessing the socio-economic impact of the disaster. iii. In India, estimation of post disaster damage loss and need assessment and making an analysis of its impact on development is not a practice. iv. In the globalized economy, the impact of disaster may be felt not only the in the neighboring country but also those countries which are interlinked with the affected country. 4. Details of all disaster 1. Natural a. Flood mainly due to concentration of heavy rainfall in 4 months, it mainly damages the crop. b. Drought - due to failure of monsoon. c. Cyclone , Earthquake , Landslide and Avalanches 2. Man Made Disasters - Forest Fires

5. Measurement of Disasters - In order to be prepared for any kind of the natural disasters in an area it is essential to understand the vulnerability of the area to different kinds of disasters and their magnitude i. The geospatial technologies have an important role in developing strategies for disaster reduction as well managing the disasters. It can be broadly classified into 1. Satellite remote sensing based technologies a. It facilitates the detection and early warning of disasters, especially those of meteorological origin. i. The forest fires can be detected early and their spread can be monitored. ii. The images enable the mapping of flood affected areas and also track the direction of movement of tropical cyclones b. The development of telecommunication technology using satellites allows transmission of disaster warning even to remote and inaccessible areas. 2. Geographical Information System (GIS) a. GIS provides a set of tools and techniques to collect, manipulate, analyze, display spatial data in an organized manner. 6. DRR Techniques for effective poverty reduction i. The presence of micro financing/micro credit in the Self Employment Programme. Therefore, it is a great tool of mitigation already available under the Scheme but not yet put to maximum use ii. Most of the works in MNREGA, pertain to soil and water shed management, minor irrigation works and flood control initiatives. Therefore, the list of eligible works clearly shows that MNREGA attempts to create assets which are helpful in mitigating natural disasters like drought, flood, cyclone iii. Under Land Development works( like tilling, ploughing, field bunding, contouring of individual fields) under MNRGEA with better gradient for drainage facilities should be allowed to be taken up by the concerned marginal farmers himself in his own field to ensure that water stagnation or flooding does not occur in his paddy field. If this activity is carried out by the respective farmers in their own fields during the summer months, there can be no better mitigation measure iv. What can be done to include DRR in Poverty Alleviation Schemes 1. Depending upon the type of calamity , severity of the damage to the houses is also related to the type of the dwelling unit/houses 2. Therefore, the DRR initiatives in the form of simple framed structure when, earth quake resistant design is incorporated in the type design of the IAY/PMGY housing schemes, the threat posed by earthquake, cyclone, flash flood, storm surges can be successfully over come. Also, the concept /practice of insuring the houses could be made mandatory to ensure replacement in case of destruction/damage.

Nalinesh Chand