Critically examine Indian industries and mention the factors that make them prone to disasters....
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The President of India is the Head of the State, ... territories in the country, 27 of them are disaster prone. ... glaciers, etc. are other natural factors which make the country prone to various.
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According to the statistics, 68% of India’s land is prone to drought, 60% to earthquakes, 12% to floods and 8% to cyclones, making India one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, affecting overall 85% of Indian land and more than 50 million people. There have been countless disasters both natural and man-made, where millions of lives have been lost before and since Indian Independence. There is nothing natural about the disasters, what can be considered natural is the ‘event’ not the ‘losses’. It is surprising that yet India has not formulated the national plan for disaster management till date, according to the CAG Report of 2013. The Indian administration has been a little too late in recognizing the importance of a National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) except the State of Gujarat.
Since 2005, though there have been achievements, there have also been major challenges. The present government has the opportunity to address many of these challenges. India is vulnerable to more than 30 different disasters taking a toll on the economic, social and human resource potential and affecting the growth, development, productivity and macro-economic performance in a long run. And it is to be noted that there is a strong link between vulnerability and capacity of the citizens.
India has been the worst sufferer of Disasters and the most unforgettable Industrial disaster being the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Yet, the government has been a slow learner that disasters in India encompass acute events and their management is a continuous process and has to be managed through simultaneous activities and interventions rather than in a phased manner. Therefore, Disaster management is a part of good governance which includes active interactions among various stake holders like administrative machinery, citizen groups, formal and informal institutions.
Disasters are episodic but are recurrent. Preparedness is the key to the success of Disaster Management Plan and without citizens’ involvement and participation any effective plan is rendered ineffective. The ultimate mandate of any government is to protect the lives and properties of its citizens. In this direction, there is a need for every citizen to be sensitized, educated and trained for any such eventuality. Citizens’ involvement and participation is one of the crucial factors for robust disaster preparedness and risk reduction. Though there have been successes in handling disasters in India like the one by Odisha Government, these just individual successes and not an institutional phenomenon. The government needs to make efforts to enhance understanding of disasters among public, educate and effectively institutionalize the disaster management plan and process.
There is a need to enhance the role of Civil Defense in Disaster Management process and formulating an effective National Plan for Disaster Management. Even now, the communication systems at the local level haven’t been much developed. There are no Standard Operating Procedures for the deployment of National Disaster Response Force. There have been many cases where there has been a relief and rescue mobilization but by the time the teams reach the damage would have already been done. The latest example being the Beas River flooding that killed more than 2 dozens of people and the teams reached more than 12 hours after the incident.
Today, it is unequivocally accepted that disasters are controllable events and it is imperative not to act in isolation. What we need is integration and coordination of various crucial departments like Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Geological Survey of India (GSI) etc. We need to bolster our defenses against the fury of disasters and in this direction, by enabling the stationing of NDRF in every district. Instead of having disaster management task-force as a part of the Police Department or Home Guards we need to have a separate command centre with a principal secretary level officer heading the organization.