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NDMA head seeks people-centric disaster management
National Disaster Management Authority official Rajendra Singh said 59% of India’s landmass is prone to earthquakes, 12% to floods.
India’s disaster risk reduction strategy should be focused on being people centric, a team effort with other departments and based on inputs from community interaction, Rajendra Singh, head of department at the National Disaster Management Authority and former director general of Indian Coast Guard said on Thursday.
He stressed that every infrastructure project in the country should be people centric and not expose people to disasters. “Whatever we are doing, the first point is to have a people-centric approach. What is in people’s interest? To help them out, not to harm them. Protect them, not to expose them,” he said, adding, “whatever scheme, whatever plan, whatever infrastructure project we are launching in India, that approach should be people-centric approach. If it is not good for the people, then that scheme should be stopped.”
Singh was speaking at a session on ‘Disaster Risk Reduction’ organised by Policy Perspectives Foundation, a think tank.
Extreme rainfall and flash floods have battered Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand in August.
“My second point is the ‘team India’ approach...army, navy, air force, paramilitary forces, and the others...we have to form like a Team India...the third priority is that you have to interact with the community for early warning, we need local volunteers. They are the first responders. Aapda Mitra is there...we need to train communities and the most vulnerable groups,” he said.
Singh pointed out that funds have been made available for disaster management. In the 13th Finance Commission, ₹33,000 crores for disasters; in the 14th Finance Commission, it became ₹64,000 crores and in the 15th Finance Commission, around ₹2,28,000 crores is made available for disaster resilience.
Singh further explained that the main priority is to be risk-informed development. “Whatever you are taking up in your region, it must be mapped properly. If you are making a powerhouse in an earthquake area zone 5, in Uttarakhand, you are exposing your people, you are exposing your community. You have to take care. Say, you are making a big jetty and building a big harbour in a coastal area, you have to see, you have to map that area properly, what type of harbour you require, what type of pillars you want to build, and what is the frequency of tsunami and cyclone in that area, you have to keep that in mind,” he added.
NDMA experts said tsunami monitoring by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre, and the cyclone warning system have both managed to address mortalities and losses to great extent but gaps remain for other hazards.
Singh said 59% of India is earthquake prone; 12% to floods, and a large part of the coastline is prone to tsunami and cyclone and 12.8% is at landslide risk.
NDMA advisor (mitigation) Safi Ahsan Rizvi pointed out that though loss of life from cyclones has reduced significantly, loss of infrastructure remains a major concern. In the case of Fani in 2019, a slow moving cyclone that remained in the ocean for 11 days before landfall, led to massive damages to power infrastructure worth ₹8,000 crore; damage to two grids and 250 km power lines; 116 towers; 2.2 lakh power poles among others.
Rizvi further said NDMA had reviewed the Dharali flash floods on August 5 and found that it was a glacial fluvial landslide but there is still a debate among scientists on how the glacial debris may have fallen. One theory is that a part or entire hanging glacier upstream may have collapsed.
