DISASTER MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION:

DISASTER:

  • Unusual events of nature.
  • Vulnerability adding to a hazard simply is Disaster.
  • If the social, economic and environmental aspects increase the susceptibility of that community, it is vulnerability. For instance: A small village resides on the banks of river. If there is a rise in the water level, it is a hazard but the vulnerability is adding to the damage of  that village when it happens thus leading to the multiplication of damage called disaster.
  • If there are more than 10 deaths or more than 100 affected, then it is called a disaster.
  • Poverty, settlement in unsafe areas, environmental degradation, rapid urbanisation, climate change and unplanned development are the reasons behind the vulnerability of a particular community.
  • Economically disadvantaged people are located in highly vulnerable zones.
  • These people do not even want to vacate their lands in those vulnerable areas as they own the land there and they stay there until the hazard hits them.

TYPES OF DISASTERS:

  • NATURAL DISASTERS
1) GEOLOGICAL DISASTERS
  • EARTHQUAKES
  • VOLCANOES
2) CLIMATIC DISASTERS
  • DROUGHT
  • FLOODS
  • CYCLONES
3) BIOLOGICAL DISASTERS
  • CHEMICAL LEAKAGE
  • GLOBAL WARMING
  • EPIDEMIC

NDMA:

  • Our government has realized the importance of disaster management and introduced National Disaster Management Act in 2005.
  • It works under the ministry of home affairs.
  • The main body of this act is the National Disaster Management Authority which appoints many bodies, train them and make them strong enough to sacrifice their life for the sake of nation during the rescue operations done during or post disaster.
  • At present we have 10 Battalion forces under NDMA which has got 1149 Jawans in each Battalion.
  • "THE MORE YOU SWEAT IN PEACE, THE LESS YOU BLEED IN WAR" is their motto.

DISASTER WISE EXPLANATION:

Any disaster may affect the 
  • Human life
  • Cattle life
  • Properties or Infrastructure
  • Agricultural land

FLOODS:

They are mainly caused due to
  • the breach of embankment due to weak structures and poor management and care.
  • the recurrence of small floods due to poor planning and management of infrastructure.
  • water logging due to poor drainage system, roads, bridges connecting the drainage.
  • absence of proper water management.

EARTHQUAKES:

They cause much destruction due to
  • Weak structures as the costs to build strong ones are high.
  • Lack of awareness
  • Lack of safety preparedness

FIRE:

They leave much devastation because
  • The vulnerable people live in the thatched houses due to poverty
  • The use of firewood for cooking as there is no other resource is available and available resources are dearer.
  • The part of human negligence due to lack of awareness , capacity and sensitivity.
  • Short circuit due to the poor maintenance and electric fault.

CYCLONES:

  • If the speed of the wind exceeds 62 kmph, then it is termed as a cyclone.
  • It leads to massive destruction as it appears with high velocity winds, heavy rainfall and floods.

PRE DISASTER MANAGEMENT:

The NDMA has appointed NDRF which is the National Disaster Response Force which looks into all the matters of precautions and rescue in the affected community.
It mainly looks into that
  • The national, state and the district level forces work with one another in coordination.
  • The prevention and mitigation measures are taken.
  • They build up their capacity by proper training, awareness and mock drills given to their Jawans.
  • Many awareness programs are conducted in all the vulnerable areas in order to make them known about the methods to perform on the verge of a disaster.
  • To analyse the geographical, social, political and economical conditions of the vulnerable areas and make the necessary arrangements before the arrival of a problem.
  • The experiences from the past disasters should be taken into consideration and should be linked with the current disasters.
  • All the public buildings like schools, hospitals etc should be constructed on the raised platforms and should be provided with exit gates and fire extinguishers.
  • At least one multi purpose community shelter is to be built in every village to support them immediately when the hazard strikes them.
  • The houses or any buildings in the earthquake prone areas should be constructed with high proportion of mud and less cement.
  • Cleaning. De-silting and deepening of natural water reservoirs and drainage channels.
  • Construction of irrigation channels.
  • Proper water shed management.
  • Insurance schemes for crop, cattle, small businesses and life.
  • Better group of architects for any construction in the vulnerable areas on the basis of type of hazard.
  • Proper research on alternate cropping to enhance the fertility of the flooded region.
  • Coastal afforestation in the cyclone prone areas to reduce the affect.
  • A proper demarcation of vulnerable areas and see to that proper facilities for drinking water are available.
  • The measures to restore the damaged infrastructure.
  • Proper management of the coast land.
  • A local villager is selected a leader called village disaster responsible leader who is responsible to have a direct contact with the NDRF to discuss the problems of the village.

THE RESPONSE FORCE:

  • This force was introduced after the world war 2 with a name civil defence force to safeguard the civilians but was winded up after the need.
  • Later again it was introduced to meet the devastation after the Sino Indian war in 1962.
  • In 2010, it was given the name NDRF and since its inception, it had saved the lives of lakhsof people.

TECHNOLOGY USED BY NDRF:

  • Victim locating cameras
  • Wood cutters to make cavity
  • Aerial cameras to find people struck in the deep forests and mountains.
  • They have established helipads on the mountain tops to rescue as many people as they can during the need of hour.
  • Like army, navy, CRPF etc, they are given the best training in every aspect.
  • Devices that can sense a human being even under a 50 feet beneath the debris are invented.
  • The dogs are trained very methodically in a way that they can sense a human upto 20 feet under the debris.
There are many such inventions made in here to provide genuine and the best support to the people.

THE OBLIGATIONS OF NDRF:

  • When a disaster occurs in a district or a village, the leaders for this purpose in that particular place would contact the NDRF.
  • NDRF with its team and equipment appears in the area and establish their stall in that area and keep in contact with the main office in New Delhi.
  • The jawans confront the hazard and save many lives lost in the debris during and after the occurrence of the disaster.
  • An evacuation team appears with first aid facilities which helps the victims then and there on the field and then they are evacuated to the earlier built safety zones or to the neighbouring safer villages.
  • They are provided with water and food by these forces.
  • If the disaster appears to be very devastating, then the army, navy, air force, CRPF personnel also join the NDRF.
  • Immediately the infrastructure team appears to check up on the damage and begin its operations to restore the damaged infrastructure.

MY PERSPECTIVE:

We have experienced many disasters in our country, small or big. The Diviseema cyclone that attacked the coast of Andhra Pradesh, the rice bowl of India had faced the death toll to approx 10000 people and the loss of 2.5 lakh animals. 83 villages were swept and washed away with a single blow. There existed no NDMA or NDRF then.
Many non profit and non governmental organisations like RSS, Ramakrishna matt etc had helped the people then. There was no villager aware of what had happened. They thought it was their fate. The politicians  manipulated the situation and showed a less death toll. Such was our India without any authority to support and rescue the people from the hazards in vulnerable areas. This was the case in all the disasters we faced in the pre 2005 era.
After the attack of tsunami in 2004, the government realized the importance of an authority to monitor the disaster management and introduced NDMA and that leading to the emergence of NDRF.
If we look into the profile of the disaster management forces of our country, we have a greater determination and empathy in our Jawans who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the nation and people.
If we look at the very recent Hudhud cyclone that hit the coast of AP and Odisha, we toll the death rate to 21 in both the states together. This shows the development and the prudent role played by our forces. Thanks to the central government to come up with such a supreme idea. Our NDMA is still newly born. There are many more adoptions to be made by our forces for further development and assessment of the disasters. They could adopt the sophisticated technology used by the developed countries to minimize the death toll to 0. At present the work of these forces is genuinely appreciable.
Some of the suggestions are:
  • In cyclone and Tsunami prone areas the electric poles and wires should be made strong and are to be covered so that they do not collapse due to the force of speed of wind or rainfall. This ensures the power attainment even during a cyclonic condition.
  • The major problem of communication should be looked after by having good signals and connectivity even in the hazardous conditions.
  • The infrastructure should from its very roots should be constructed in a pacca way and in a very suitable manner to sustain the severe weather conditions.
  • The agricultural land should be protected from the silt due to the high speed winds from the sea shore by coming up with the best technology to prevent it.
  • The constructions near by the coast will be the biggest factor for the life loss in future. This is even affecting the fishermen who depend on seas for their bread in the present scenario as they are hit by cyclones every now and then keeping their lives at risk. So the constructions should be limited.
  • The forest areas should be developed near the coasts in order to reduce the devastation.
  • There should be authorities for the coastal zone management to look after the protection of forests, to restrict the growth of industries, to manage the coastal areas when hit by a cyclone or tsunami in the states, to maintain some rules and regulations in order to protect the coastal areas from devastation.
Many more basic and sophisticated methods are to be adopted by our disaster management forces in order make our country prosperous without any loss to the economic, social, environmental and occupational back ground of the vulnerable communities.

Source:
NDMA
NDRF
Youtube
Wikipedia
EMBAT, the international disaster database
NCBI
The Hindu
Indian Meteorological Department
disastermanagement.ap.gov.in





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