Disasters and their mitigation "A much required paradigm shift"

India has been traditionally vulnerable to natural disasters on account of its unique geo-climatic conditions. Floods (Bihar, WB, Uttarakhand Aasam), droughts (Rajsthan, Maharashtra, Odisa, Bihar Aandhrapradesh), cyclones (Coastal states), earthquakes (Earthquake belt from Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh) and landslides (Himalayan States) have been a recurrent phenomena. About 60% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 40 million hectares is prone to floods; about 8% of the total area is prone to cyclones and 68% of the area is susceptible to drought.

In view of the recent natural (Or may be Man-made ) disaster in Uttarakhand, it has become necessary to change the way we view it, define it and handle it. Since many decades disasters have been considered as the fate of common man. Even the focus of SDMC ( State Disaster Management Committees) and NDMC has primerily been on only mitigation rather prevention. From 1999 oddisa cyclone disaster to 2001 bhuj earthquakes and now 2013 floods every single disaster has drawn the curtains and showed us how unprepared we are .. 

Early warning systems have been ineffective or maybe we have learnt to close our eyes. It seems that we would rather love to count dead bodies rather preventing their fates at first place.

National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) is the organization working under group of ministries (MoHA, MoD, MoRD, MoIA ) which is responsible for the activities like , Installing, operating and managing early warning systems, carrying rescue and rehabilitation operations and ultimately redefining crisis management policies. Still it's a shame that we need to call army and other agencies in rescue and rehabilitation operations despite of having this strongly manned, well established network of CMCs ... this also shifts focus on the fact that our existing mechanism lacks preparedness in terms of resources, training and manpower. 

It has been proposed to constitute a National Emergency Management Authority at the National level. The High Powered Committee on Disaster Management which was set up in August, 1999 and submitted its Report in October, 2001, had recommended that a separate Department of Disaster Management be set up in the Government of India. It was, however, felt that conventional Ministries/Departments have the drawback of not being flexible enough specially in terms of the sanction procedures.

The worst part is due to lack of separate specialized central department, the responsibility of rehabilitation goes to other ministries and agencies where they build their mansions and Swissbank account balance on the pile of dead bodies.

We as a common citizen either don't know a thing or perhaps we are too busy with other important things like "Cricket, Movies, Temple run, may be wassap ;) ) 

Any ways, least we can do is to be informed and keep asking our authorities through RTI petitions and official complaints that when is NEMA being constituted and empowered in real sense. 

Thanks for ur valuable time

~ Rahul Bhardwaj ~