The head of department at the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), and former Director General of the Indian Coast Guard, Rajendra Singh, said that India’s disaster risk reduction strategy should be focused on people’s participation and a team effort with other departments, along with inputs from community interaction.

He further stated 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 is to help them out, not to harm them, protect them, not to expose them. Whether it is a scheme, a plan, or an infrastructure project we are launching in India, that approach should be people-centric. It is not good for the people that the scheme should be stopped.”

Singh was speaking at a session on disaster risk reduction organised by a think tank called the Policy Perspective Foundation.

Singh’s Recommendations

He also drew the audience’s attention to the extreme rainfall and flash floods that occurred in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttarakhand within the month of August.

“My second point is the Team India approach… Army, Navy, Air Force, military forces, and 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. Mitras are there… We need to train communities and the most vulnerable groups,” Singh further added.

The National Disaster Management Authority had pointed out that funds have been made available for disaster management. In the 13th Finance Commission, around ₹33,000 crore was allotted for disasters. In the 14th Finance Commission, it went up to ₹64,000 crore. Subsequently, in the 15th Finance Commission, the allocation rose to around ₹2,28,000 crore.

According to Singh, the main priority is 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 zone (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 study the area properly. What type of harbour do you require? What type of pillars do you want to build? What is the frequency of tsunami and cyclone in that area? You have to keep that in mind,” he added.

NDMA Experts Warn

According to other NDMA experts, tsunami monitoring by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre, and the cyclone warning system have managed to reduce mortalities and losses to a large extent, but still gaps remain. They said that 59% of India is earthquake-prone, 12% is flood-prone, and a large part of the coastline is prone to tsunamis and cyclones, while 12.8% is at risk of landslides.

NDMA Advisor (Mitigation) Saifi Ahsan Rizvi pointed out that the loss of life from cyclones has reduced significantly. However, loss of infrastructure still remains a big hurdle. In the case of Cyclone Fani in 2019, a slow-moving cyclone that remained in the ocean for 11 days before landfall, damage to power infrastructure was worth ₹8,000 crore. It damaged grids and 250 km of powerlines, 116 towers, 2.2 lakh power poles, and a lot of other things, including personal property. He also suggested that NDMA has reviewed the Dhauliganga flash floods on August 5 and found that it was a glacial fluvial landslide. Yet there is debate among scientists on how the glacial debris may have fallen. One theory suggests that part of the hanging glacier upstream may have collapsed.