A high-level Indian delegation headed by Dr P.K. Mishra, Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, is participating in the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 2019 being held at Geneva, Switzerland from May 13-17, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
While presenting India's statement today, Dr Mishra briefed on the steps taken by India after the adoption of the Sendai Framework. He mentioned that India is not only focusing on reducing mortality from major disasters but also from small or medium, and locally-specific disasters such as heat wave, thunderstorm and lightning.
"Focussed attention and investments in cyclone risk mitigation has yielded dividends in saving precious human lives. Deaths during cyclone Phailin in 2013 and Fani in 2019 have reduced considerably," Mishra said during his address.
Towards continuous efforts on preparedness earlier this year, Mishra said, "The Government has issued national guidelines for managing the risk of losses from the thunderstorm, lightning, squall, dust storm, hailstorm and strong winds. Taken together these natural hazards are among the biggest killers in India."
"It will help improve the capacity of our States, assist with local level Action Planning, and ultimately help reduce preventable losses from such frequently occurring disasters," he added.
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Similarly, on national and local disaster risk reduction strategies, Mishra claimed that based on the National Disaster Management Plan of 2016, all the states and more than 95 per cent of districts in India have prepared their Disaster Management Plans.
Mishra outlined that India believes in working together with other nations in DRR as there are common challenges, benefits of sharing best practices and a need to respond together for search and rescue. Towards this end, India hosted the First 'BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise' in the National Capital Region in October 2017. Likewise, in February 2019, India hosted a meeting on Disaster Risk Management of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), an intergovernmental organization of 22 members and nine dialogue partners.
Mishra highlighted the urgent need to ensure that the new infrastructure to be created anywhere should be resilient to disaster.
"In order to encourage innovation and recognise the exceptional contributions of organisations and individuals to disaster risk management in the country, Government of India has instituted an annual national award in the name of our great freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose," he informed.
According to the statement released by the government, Mishra reaffirmed India's commitment and support towards the implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Asia Regional Plan.
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