168. Short Essay and Article on : Disaster Management in India

Taking help from the information given in the input below along with your own views, write an article on ‘Disaster Management in India’ with special reference to the ‘Hudhud cyclone’ and the unprecedented floods in Kashmir.

Hints: • National Institute of Disaster Management • a premier institute • training and capacity development programmes • constituted under an Act of Parliament in 1995 • statutory organisation status • The NIDM • a deemed university • NIDM served as a great agency when Tsunami hit India • to train and conduct mock drills, crisis communication and a hazard hunt exercise • mock drills simulating an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 • played a key role during the Hudhud Cyclone in Andhra and Odisha • evacuated lakhs of marooned people with the help of army in Kashmir floods.

Ans. Disaster Management in India

–Raghav

National Institute of Disaster Management is a premier national institute. It trains people for capacity development programmes for managing natural disasters in India. The NIDM works under the government’s directives to train and conduct checks to regulate effective earthquake and disaster control policies. Recently, Delhi witnessed one of the biggest mega mock drills conducted by the NIDM in India.

The buildings and infrastructures in India are quite vulnerable to calamities. They can’t withstand the rigours of a natural calamity. The Tsunami disasters in South India expose the unpreparedness and lack of skills in disaster management. The havoc caused by the floods and landslides in Kedarnath only underlines our weaknesses or inefficiency in tackling natural disaster on such a scale. The NIDM can take due credit for its efficient work done during the ‘Hudhud’ cyclone. The cyclone struck the coastal areas of Andhra and Odisha. Proper warning and early evacuation in the affected areas limited losses and casualties. But again the NIDM proved quite ineffective when unprecedented floods rocked Srinagar and other parts of Jammu and Kashmir. It was the army and not the NIDM that stole the limelight by evacuating lakhs of the marooned people and saving their lives. NIDM has a long way to go. It must prepare itself as a body that can cope with natural disasters with professional skills and efficiency.