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During its eight years of existence, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) seems to have done little to equip the country in disaster preparedness. The floods that ravaged Uttarakhand last week, killing more than 800 people (according to official estimates), have put the spotlight on NDMA, which is drawing flak from all quarters.
While the nodal disaster management authority claims that most state governments do not comply with its recommendations and the guidelines are binding on states, it is significant that none of its members has any expertise in dealing with natural calamities. While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the chairman of NDMA, its day-to-day management is handled by vice-chairman M Shashidhar Reddy, who is a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Andhra Pradesh.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which carries out the search and rescue operations for NDMA, had demanded Rs 3,175 crore from the Centre in the 12th Plan period for better training of state government agencies and research projects, but it was given only Rs 1,250 crore, out of which it got Rs 100 crore for 2013-14.
“India has started late in the area of disaster response and the state governments have not fully realised the need for disaster management. Since there is shortage of funds and training facilities for both NDRF personnel and state government members, NDMA will take at least 10 more years to be fully prepared to meet the challenges faced in hilly areas, including Uttarakhand,” said an NDMA member involved in rescue operations in Uttarakhand. The Centre enacted the Disaster Management Act in 2005.
While the states that have suffered natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods in the last decade — Gujarat, Odisha, Bihar, and Jammu and Kashmir — are better prepared for disasters, other states continue to lag behind with little training of manpower. The recommendations made by NDMA in 2009 on all hilly states, including Uttarakhand, which are in high-seismic zones, have not been implemented by the state governments. NDMA’s national executive committee, which was constituted in October 2008, has not met even once since then.
While the nodal disaster management authority claims that most state governments do not comply with its recommendations and the guidelines are binding on states, it is significant that none of its members has any expertise in dealing with natural calamities. While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the chairman of NDMA, its day-to-day management is handled by vice-chairman M Shashidhar Reddy, who is a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Andhra Pradesh.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which carries out the search and rescue operations for NDMA, had demanded Rs 3,175 crore from the Centre in the 12th Plan period for better training of state government agencies and research projects, but it was given only Rs 1,250 crore, out of which it got Rs 100 crore for 2013-14.
“India has started late in the area of disaster response and the state governments have not fully realised the need for disaster management. Since there is shortage of funds and training facilities for both NDRF personnel and state government members, NDMA will take at least 10 more years to be fully prepared to meet the challenges faced in hilly areas, including Uttarakhand,” said an NDMA member involved in rescue operations in Uttarakhand. The Centre enacted the Disaster Management Act in 2005.
While the states that have suffered natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods in the last decade — Gujarat, Odisha, Bihar, and Jammu and Kashmir — are better prepared for disasters, other states continue to lag behind with little training of manpower. The recommendations made by NDMA in 2009 on all hilly states, including Uttarakhand, which are in high-seismic zones, have not been implemented by the state governments. NDMA’s national executive committee, which was constituted in October 2008, has not met even once since then.
“The Department of Science and Technology was developing a software to find safe navigation roads during landslides, but that is still in the pipeline. An early warning system was to be developed for floods and landslides in hilly areas, but that project, too, has not taken off. There is an early warning system for tsunami which is in place, but no such mechanism for hilly areas,” said K M Singh, member, NDMA.
Since 2008, in Uttarakhand alone, 653 people have lost their lives due to natural calamities including cloud burst, landslide, heavy rains, flash floods, and avalanches.
Notably, a team of NDMA experts had visited Uttarakhand in May this year and toured all along the recently-affected areas. The state government was cautioned that building norms had not been followed by the local authorities and that construction of dams, mining, and power projects were creating environmental problems in the state. However, its recommendations fell on deaf ears.
"The Union government had proposed a 100-km area being made eco sensitive zone from Gangotri to Uttarkashi, but all political parties opposed the move so the project was stalled. River aggradation, cutting of forests, unattended stones and boulders after construction of dams, mining projects are some of the causes that further add to the problem in case of floods and landslides," said a senior NDMA officer.
The glaring shortcomings of NDMA came out in the open during the recent natural disaster in Uttarakhand, when it became apparent that the rescue teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were not only facing manpower shortages, but lacked basic equipment such as satellite phones for communications, vehicles, helicopters and planes for evacuation, and safe houses for rescued victims are also not in place.
"NDRF has just 20 satellite phones, whereas the minimum requirement is 100. Communication is a major problem for the force," said another NDMA member, adding that the nodal agency has to depend on armed forces to carry out search and rescue operations.
