NOTES

4
GS HANDOUT DISASTER MANAGEMENT
By Indrajeet Bariar Sir

Emergency - a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action
Disaster - a sudden accident or a natural catastrophe that causes great damage or loss of life
Crisis - a time of intense difficulty or danger
Types of Crisis:
 Crisis caused by acts of nature. These can further be divided into the following
sub-categories:
o Climatic events: Cyclones and storms, floods and droughts
o Geological events: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, landslides etc.
 Crisis caused by environmental degradation and disturbance of the ecological
balance;
 Crisis caused by accidents. These, again, can be further classified into: industrial
and nuclear mishaps and fire related accidents;
 Crisis caused by biological activities: public health crises, epidemics etc.;
 Crisis caused by hostile elements: war, terrorism, extremism etc.
 Crisis caused by disruption/failure of major infrastructure facilities including communication
systems, large scale strikes etc.
 Crisis caused by large scale crowds getting out of control

1
WORLD CONFERENCE ON DISASTER RISK REDUCTION NOTES
1. YOKOHAMA – 1994
2. KOBE – 2005
3. SENDAI – 2015

First Conference – Yokohama - 1994

Yokohama 10 principles for a safer world
1. Risk assessment is a required step for the adoption of adequate and successful disaster
reduction policies and measures.
2. Disaster prevention and preparedness are of primary importance in reducing the need for
disaster relief.
3. Disaster prevention and preparedness should be considered integral aspects of
development policy and planning at national, regional, bilateral, multilateral and
international levels.
4. The development and strengthening of capacities to prevent, reduce and mitigate disasters
is a top priority area to be addressed during the Decade so as to provide a strong basis for
follow-up activities to the Decade.
5. Early warnings of impending disasters and their effective dissemination using
telecommunications, including broadcast services, are key factors to successful disaster
prevention and preparedness.
6. Preventive measures are most effective when they involve participation at all levels, from
the local community through the national government to the regional and international
level.
7. Vulnerability can be reduced by the application of proper design and patterns of
development focused on target groups, by appropriate education and training of the whole
community.
8. The international community accepts the need to share the necessary technology to
prevent, reduce and mitigate disaster; this should be made freely available and in a timely
manner as an integral part of technical cooperation.
9. Environmental protection as a component of sustainable development consistent with
poverty alleviation is imperative in the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.
10. Each country bears the primary responsibility for protecting its people, infrastructure, and
other national assets from the impact of natural disasters. The international community
should demonstrate strong political determination required to mobilize adequate and make
efficient use of existing resources, including financial, scientific and technological means, in
the field of natural disaster reduction, bearing in mind the needs of the developing
countries, particularly the least developed countries.

2
Second Conference – Kobe 2005 NOTES
Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-2015): Building resilience of Nations and Communities to
Disasters
Five principles:
1. Making disaster risk reduction a priority;
2. Improving risk information and early warning;
3. Building a culture of safety and resilience;
4. Reducing the risks in key sectors;
5. Strengthening preparedness for response.

Third Conference – Sendai – 2015

Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030
Priority areas
The Sendai Framework sets four specific priorities for action:
 Understanding disaster risk;
 Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk;
 Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience;
 Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to "Building Back Better" in
recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Global targets
To support the assessment of global progress in achieving the outcome and goal of the Sendai
Framework, seven global targets have been agreed:
1. Substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030, aiming to lower average per 100,000
global mortality between 2020 and 2030 compared to 2005–2015;
2. Substantially reduce the number of affected people globally by 2030, aiming to lower the
average global figure per 100,000 between 2020 and 2030 compared to 2005–2015;
3. Reduce direct disaster economic loss in relation to global gross domestic product by 2030;
4. Substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic
services, among them health and educational facilities, including through developing their
resilience by 2030;
5. Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk
reduction strategies by 2020;
6. Substantially enhance international cooperation to developing countries through adequate
and sustainable support to complement their national actions for implementation of the
framework by 2030;
7. Substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems
and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030.
Difference between Sendai and Hyogo Framework:
 The Sendai Framework is also an important step forward in recognising displacement as one of
the most severe consequences of disasters. Whereas its predecessor, the Hyogo Framework for
Action, hardly touched upon this issue, the Sendai Framework explicitly acknowledges the
“adoption of policies and programmes addressing disaster-induced human mobility to

3
 strengthen the resilience of the affected people and that of host communities” as an important NOTES
measure for ensuring that DRR investments contribute to enhancing resilience.
 Sendai emphasis on disaster risk, that is efforts to reduce the disaster size; whereas Hyogo
focuses on disaster losses, that is , minimising the impacts of losses from disaster
 Sendai focuses more on the implementation means like how are we to prevent or stop the
natural hazards. Hyogo focus on the "what" which implies understanding the risks and what
must be done in response to those risks
 Sendai Framework has defined goals in terms of outcome-based targets instead of focusing on
sets of activities and actions
 There is significant shift from earlier emphasis on disaster management to addressing disaster
risk management itself by focusing on the underlying drivers of risk.
 In addition to social vulnerability, it pays considerable attention to environmental aspects
through a strong recognition that the implementation of integrated environmental and natural
resource management approaches is needed for disaster reduction

DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN INDIA

Institutional Arrangement NDMA 2005

Second ARC on Crisis Management

 India is very vulnerable to natural hazards because of its unique geo-climatic conditions.
Disasters occur in India with grim regularity causing enormous loss of life and property. Almost
85% of the country is vulnerable to single or multiple disasters and about 57% of its area lies in
high seismic zones. Approximately 40 million hectares of the country’s land area is prone to
flood, about 8% of the total land mass is vulnerable to cyclone and 68% of the area is susceptible
to drought

4
 In terms of erosion of resources, disasters have proved frightfully expensive. According to a NOTES
recent study by the World Bank, 2.25% of the GDP and 12.15% of the revenue of the country
were lost due to natural disasters during 1996-2000
 Disaster/Crisis Management should continue to be the primary responsibility of the State
Governments and the Union Government should play a supportive role
 The role of the local governments should be brought to the forefront for crisis/disaster
management.
 Though it is the responsibility of the government machinery and the local bodies to disseminate
the warning, peoples’ participation has to be enlisted. For this purpose, the role of community
leaders, NGOs and others should be clearly defined in the emergency response plan and they
should be fully trained and prepared for their respective roles.

Early Warning System

The objective of an early warning system is to alert the community of any impending hazard so that
they can take preventive measures. An early warning system basically has four components -
capturing the precursor events, transmission of this data to a central processing facility, alert
recognition of an impending crisis and warning dissemination. Capturing the precursor events is
generally a technology driven process for most disasters. However, for disasters like epidemics,
strikes and terrorism, the human element plays a vital role in the data capture. Transmission of this
data to the central processing facility is also totally technology based. Alerts are generated based on
data analysis. Sometimes, alert generation may take some time, as a decision making process may
be involved.
The dissemination of warning to the vulnerable sections again has both technology and human
elements.
The last decade has seen major advances in technology relating to data capture, transmission,
analysis and even dissemination. Thus, the early warning phase of disaster management is largely
technology driven with satellite imagery, remote sensing, seismology, oceanography, climatology
etc. providing vital inputs. But like most technologies there are last mile problems which make
human intervention essential. It is important that the warning reaches the most vulnerable sections
in a manner that is understood by them. Therefore, in spite of far reaching technological advances,
mechanisms still have to be put in place to suit the local conditions. And without the total
involvement and awareness of the local community, the last mile issue cannot be addressed or
resolved.
IS THERE A NEED FOR A SEPARATE ENTRY OF “DISASTER MANAGEMENT” IN THE CONSTITUTION OF
INDIA?
‘Disaster Management’ as a subject is not mentioned in any of the three lists. A subject not
specifically mentioned in any of these lists comes under the Residuary Powers of the Union under
entry 97 of the Union List. According to one view, Parliament therefore has the competence to

5
legislate on this subject. However, by practice and convention the primary responsibility for NOTES
managing disasters rests with the State Governments. The Ministry of Agriculture made a plea to
the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRCW) to recommend
insertion of an entry on the subject in the Concurrent List. The High Powered Committee (HPC) also
recommended that a conscious view needs to be taken to make an appropriate mention of the
subject of disaster management in one of the lists. The NCRCW ultimately made the following
recommendation;

“Management of Disasters and Emergencies, natural or man-made be included in list three

i.e. the concurrent list of the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution”.

Parliament has enacted the Disaster Management Act, 2005 by invoking entry 23 namely ‘Social
security and social insurance, employment and unemployment’ in the Concurrent List even though
all aspects of crisis management cannot be said to be covered by this entry. Similarly, some States
have also passed laws governing disaster management. Before one examines the issue of where
the subject should appropriately be included, it is necessary to analyze the activities that constitute
‘disaster management’ so as to ensure that these do not come into conflict with other entries in the
three lists.
Disaster management encompasses all activities including preparedness, early warning systems,
rescue, relief and rehabilitation. The term disaster includes natural calamities, health related
disasters (epidemics), industrial disasters and disasters caused by hostile elements such as
terrorists. There are already various entries in the three lists, which deal with some aspect or other
of disaster management. ‘Public order’ finds a place in the State List, as does Public Health. Entries
14 and 17 in the State List deal with Agriculture and Water respectively. Environment and Social
Security are included in the Concurrent List. Atomic energy and Railways are part of the Union List.
In addition, after the 73rd and 74th amendments all civic powers have been delegated to local bodies.
Due to the cross cutting nature of activities that constitute disaster management and the vertical
and horizontal linkages required which involve coordination between the Union, State and local
governments on the one hand and a host of government departments and agencies on the other;
setting up of a broadly uniform institutional framework at all levels is of paramount importance. The
legislative underpinning for such a framework would need to ensure congruence and coherence
with regard to the division of labour and responsibilities among the agencies at the Union, State and
other levels. This could best be achieved if the subject of Disaster Management is placed in the
Concurrent List of the Constitution. Unlike in other cases of proposals for inclusion in the Concurrent
List, State Governments may also welcome this, as this will also enable them to have legislation
without ambiguity regarding the entry.