Disaster Management: Is India really geared up?

In 2001, Gujarat witnessed a devastating Earthquake which had its worst effect in Bhuj (Kachchh) region. It was at this juncture, the Govt of India felt a need to streamline the procedure for disaster management. In 2005, Disaster Management Act was enacted which led to evolution of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) headed by the Prime Minister. Later, each state formed SDMA of their own in a varying time frame headed by respective Chief Ministers. 8 units of NDRF were initially created and located in the critical areas for rapid response.  Considering the size of India and diversity of disasters, resources so created are highly inadequate. Presently, man made disasters have overshadowed natural calamities. Hence, dependence on Armed Forces and other Security Forces for relief and rescue operations has continued as hither-to-fore. 

A lot needs to be learnt from the recent fury of rains and floods in Uttrakhand and Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. Though, everyone says it was a natural calamity, but I don't agree with it. As per my opinion, it was a man made disaster as we have been tempering with the nature to an extreme extent to satisfy insatiable greed of our politicians, babus at various levels and of course handful of businessmen who had been abetting anti-nature activities by flouting environmental norms. In fact illegal construction activities, illegal mining activities , violation of construction laws and by-laws , land grabbing, uncontrolled and unregistered tourism and religious pilgrimages etc. have led to the problems.

I witnessed the relief and rescue operations from a close angle by virtue of my presence in the affected area during the period. Certain very alarming issues emerged during the fortnight long rescue operations are as follows:

• Lack of alarm/early warning system to caution people , both locals and outsiders, to remain aware and cautious due to heavy rains,  led to heavy casualties. In India, even the weather forecast are considered unreliable and people do not take them seriously. 

•  Unchecked influx of tourists and pilgrims have rendered civil administration unwary of the total number of people affected by the disaster till even today.

•  Failure of Govt machinery to assess the quantum of damage in both the states led to late start of relief and rescue operations. In fact, effective operations could only start on the 3rd day. Initially, helicopters operating in the area faced fuel shortage due to poor planning. Lack of helipads and open spaces suitable to be used  as helipads adversely affected the relief and rescue operations. Majority of open spaces in Uttrakhand have been grabbed by land mafia and are being used for commercial purposes. 

•  Initial lack of coordination between various agencies operating in the area was a serious setback to rescue operations. In such a situation overall coordination should be given to Army and NDMA should assume overall command. In fact, NDMA has failed to manage its first large scale disaster after its evolution.  

•  Due to inability of the State Govts. to assess  the situation correctly, adequate resources could not be made available for rescue operations. The entire effort remained disjointed. There's no dearth of helicopters of various types in India. The Central Govt. should've pumped in more resources ab-initio. 

•  In such like situations, Army/ Defence Services/ PMF units located in the area should automatically assume responsibility of relief and rescue without waiting for formal sanction. Unawareness of resources and requisition procedures also leads to avoidable delays as in one of the states the Govt authorities didn't know the hiring procedure of Army and Air Force Helicopters. The Chief Secretary should've picked up phone and spoken to PS MoD bypassing all intermediaries. Paper work could've followed. 

• Politicians should be restricted to visit the affected areas and the local authorities should pave way for volunteer organisations for relief operations right in the beginning.  Saving the precious lives of the stranded people should take precedence over political mileage or blame game of the politicians.