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Disaster Management in India – Types, Impact and Challenges

June 22, 2024 1646 0

Safer Tomorrow: Integrated Disaster Risk Reduction

  • It is mainly a Disaster Risk Reduction strategy involved in a continuous and integrated process of planning, organising, coordinating and implementing measures. 
  • It includes all measures which reduce disaster-related losses of life, property or assets by either reducing the hazard or vulnerability of the elements at risk. 
  • Disaster management initiatives are generally based on two-pronged strategies of Preparedness and Mitigation.

Disaster Risk Reduction 

1. Preparedness: 

  • Measures taken before the occurrence of disaster aimed at minimising loss of life, disruption of critical services, and damage when the disaster occurs.
  • Preparedness includes the formulation of viable emergency plans, development of warning systems, maintenance of inventories, training of personnel, search and rescue measures, and evacuation plans for areas at risk from a recurring disaster.

2. Mitigation: 

  • Measures taken to reduce both the effect of the hazard and the vulnerability in order to reduce the scale of a future disaster.
  • Examples of mitigation measures: Water management in drought-prone areas, relocating people away from the hazard-prone areas, strengthening structures to reduce damage when a hazard occurs, and reducing the economic and social vulnerabilities of potential disasters.

Disaster Management Cycle: Before, During, After Strategies

  • Disaster Management includes the sum total of all activities, programmes and measures which can be taken up before, during and after a disaster with the purpose of avoiding a disaster, reducing its impact or recovering from its losses. 

The three key stages of disaster risk management are: Before, During, After Management

  • Before a disaster (Pre-disaster): Strengthening Communities
  • Activities taken to reduce human and property losses caused by a potential hazard. 
  • Example: carrying out awareness campaigns, strengthening the existing weak points structures, preparation of the disaster management plans at household and community level etc.
  • During a disaster (Disaster occurrence): Minimizing Suffering During Disasters
    • Initiatives are taken to ensure that the needs of victims are met and suffering is minimised. 
    • Activities taken under this stage are called emergency response activities.
  • After a disaster (Post-disaster): Post-Disaster Recovery Initiatives
    • The purpose of disaster management is to achieve early recovery and rehabilitation of affected communities, immediately after a disaster strikes. 
    • These are called response and recovery activities.

Disaster Management

Disaster Management

Yokohama Strategy and International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR)

Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World

  • All the member states of the United Nations and other states met at the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction in the city of Yokohama from May 23rd-27th 1994.
  • It acknowledged that the impact of natural disasters in terms of human and economic losses has risen in recent years, and society, in general, has become vulnerable to natural disasters.
  • It also accepted that these disasters affected the poor and disadvantaged groups the worst, particularly in the developing countries, which are ill-equipped to cope with them.
  • The conference adopted the Yokohama strategy as a guide to the rest of the decade and beyond, to mitigate the losses due to these disasters.
  • The resolution of the World Conference on Natural Disasters Reduction is as mentioned below:
    • Priority attention to the developing countries, particularly the least developed,land-locked countries and small-island developing states.
    • Developing and strengthening national capabilities and, where appropriate, national legislation for natural and other disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness, including the mobilisation of non-governmental organisations and participation of local communities.
    • Promoting and strengthening sub-regional, regional and international cooperation in activities to prevent, reduce and mitigate natural and other disasters, with particular emphasis on

(a) Human and institutional capacity-building and strengthening.

(b) Technology sharing: the collection, dissemination and utilisation of information.

(c) Mobilisation of resources.

  • It also declared the decade 1990-2000 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).

Conclusion

  • On the basis of the above discussion, it can be concluded that disasters can be natural or the results of human activities, and all hazards need not turn into disasters since it is difficult to eliminate disasters, particularly natural disasters. 
  • Then the next best option is mitigation and preparedness. 
  • The introduction of the Disaster Management Bill, of 2005 and the establishment of the National Institute of Disaster Management are some examples of the positive steps taken by the Government of India.
Glossary

  • Disaster: A serious disruption in the functioning of the community or society.
  • Hazard: A dangerous condition or event that threatens or has the potential to cause injury to life or damage to property.
  • Feminine: A lack of food over a long period of time in a large area that can cause the death of many people.
  • Technological Disaster: A technological disaster is an event caused by a malfunction of a technological structure or some human error in controlling or handling the technology.
  • Wind Storm:  A wind that is strong enough to cause light damage to trees and buildings and may or may not be accompanied by precipitation. Wind speeds during a windstorm typically exceed 55 km per hour.
  • Meteorology: Meteorology is the study of the atmosphere, atmospheric phenomena, and atmospheric effects on our weather.
  • Meteorological Disaster: Disaster caused by extreme weather produced by the earth’s atmosphere.
  • Geological Disaster:  Natural disasters caused by a geological process are called geological disasters. These are earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and landslides.
  • Epidemic: An epidemic is a sudden disease outbreak that affects a large number of people in a particular region, community, or population.
  • Plates: A tectonic plate is a massive, irregularly shaped slab of solid rock, generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere.
  • Disaster Management Bill,2005: The act aims to establish an efficient disaster management system for the country in the event of natural and man-made calamities.
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Quick Revise Now !
UDAAN PRELIMS WALLAH
Comprehensive coverage with a concise format
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Designed as per recent trends of Prelims questions
हिंदी में भी उपलब्ध

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