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Types of crises situation:

1.

Crisis caused by nature:

a.

Climatic: cyclone, floods, droughts, storms etc.

b.

Geological: earthquake, Tsunami, landslides, avalanches.

2.

Caused by environment degradation and disturbance of ecological balance.

3.

Accidents: industrial mishaps. E.g. Bhopal gas tragedy, Fukushima.

4.

Caused by biological activities: epidemics, public health crises.

5.

Caused by hostile elements: War, terrorism, extremism, insurgency.

6.

Caused by breakdown of major infrastructure facilities. E.g. breakdown of communication mechanisms, large

scale strikes.

7.

Large crowds getting out of control: riots.

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Phases of crisis and disaster management:

1.

Pre-crises:

Preparedness: assess potential risks and vulnerability.

Enforcement of special norms to mitigate impact: e.g better enforcement of building code in

earthquake prone areas, proper maintenance of drainage system in flood prone areas etc.

Appropriate legal and operational framework in place.

2.

During Crisisemergency response:

Speedy response

Evacuation, search and rescue to mitigate losses.

Supply of basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, medicines etc.

3.

Post Crisis:

Recovery: effort must be made to reduce vulnerability and future risks. Rehabilitation: temporary public utilities and housing.

Reconstruction: of damaged infrastructure and habitats.

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Elements of Crisis Management:

Aim of crisis management strategy should be:

1. Creating appropriate legal and organizational framework;

2.

Making government organizations, local bodies, communities/groups and individuals at all levels awareof the risk of potential natural and man-made hazards as well as their vulnerabilities;

3. Meticulous long and short term planning and effective implementation of plans;4.

Building resilience of the communities to face crises and ensuring their full participation;5.

Developing and disseminating knowledge of crisis management.

PREPAREDNESS IS NOT A ONE TIME EFFORT. IT IS A CONTINUOUS PROCESS.

Risk reduction Quick Response Recovery

Legal and institutional framework Trigger mechanism and SOP Planned recovery

Hazard & vulnerability analysis Immediate rescue and relief Rehabilitation with sustained livelihoods

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Planning for risk reduction and

dissemination of plans. Plans must

be all encompassing.

Co-ordination between govt. agencies,

voluntary organization, community

and local bodies

Integrate risk reduction features in

rehabilitation measures.

Capacity building of community and

government organizations.

Effective information dissemination Focus on weaker sections.

Adopting risk reduction techniques Monitoring and evaluation. Monitoring, audit and evaluation

Early Warning systems.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Disaster Risk Reduction:

systematic development and application of policies, strategies and practices to minimize vulnerability and

hazards

Includes appraisal of likelihood and intensity of hazards and vulnerability of society thereto.

World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, Yokohama, 1994: Shifted focus to prevention

Risk assessment.

Disaster prevention and preparedness: plans in place, must be integral to developmental plans at all levels. Capacity building to prevent, reduce and mitigate disasters.

Early warnings.

Need to share technology

Environment protection as a component of sustainable development.

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Crisis situation in India:

Vulnerable due to geo-climatic location.

57% area in seismic zone.

85% area vulnerable to a single or multiple disasters.

68% susceptible to drought.

Areas vulnerable to industrial, chemical and biological disasters.

Key vulnerabilities:

1.

Earthquakes:

most prone areas are NE ( frequency less than 4 months), A&N islands (

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Measures: efficient and reliable forecast, rapid dissemination of warnings,

construction of cyclone shelters, ready machinery for evacuation of people especially

in the months of October and November

3.

Tsunami:

Large waves (3-10 M) generated by sudden movement of ocean floor

11300 crores loss in Tsunami 2004.

4.

Floods: Assam, Bihar followed by UP and WB.

5.

Landslides and Avalanches:

Landslide Avalanches

Downward movement of lithology Downslope movement of snow.

Himalayas and WG Himalayas.

Himalayan landslides more dangerous. Slope of mountain, depth of snow cover,

gunshots, wind velocity, atm temp. vegetation

cover of trees and shrubs.

Kashmir Avalanche of 2005.

6.

Industrial Disasters:

Governed by

Pre Bhopal: Factories Act, 1948 and Explosives Act, 1884

Post Bhopal: Environment Protection Act, 1986, A new chapter in Factories Act, 1948.

7.

Epidemics:

Water Borne: cholera, typhoid, hepatitis- A and B.

Vector Borne: Dengue, Chikungunya, Japanese Encephalitis, Malaria, Kala-azar.

Person to person transmission: AIDS etc.

Air borne: TB, measles.8.

Nuclear hazards.

9.

Desert Locusts.

Slow Onset disasters: ( also called Creeping Emergencies)

Society loses ability to derive sustenance from their surroundings.

1.

Climate Change:

Statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or its variability, persisting

for an extended period

2.

Droughts:

shortfall in availability of water but not exclusively due to deficiency in rainfall.

India has one of the highest average annual rainfall, 1150mm.

80% in S-W monsoon season & geographic spread in uneven.

Irrigation using groundwater aggravates the situation.

Attributable to mismatch between the supply and demand, esp. for non-agriculture purposes.

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3.

Desertification and land degradation:

Desertification: any kind of land degradation.

Soil erosion, increased alkalinity in soil and water logging.

Affects one third of total area of india.

4.

Sea erosion:

Landward displacement of shoreline due to the effects of waves and currents.

Construction of artificial structure, mining of beach sand, offshore dredging. 23% of coastline affected.

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Measure for reducing calamities:

1.

Use traditional knowledge: ( tribal in Andaman survived Tsunami, wooden houses in Uttarkashi survive EQ)

2.

Floods:

Master plan.

Adequate flood cushion must be provided in water storage project even at the cost of irrigation and

power benefits.

Physical flood protection works such as Embankments and dykes.

Modernized Forecast and warning.

Strict regulation of settlements and economic activity in flood prone zones.

3.

Sea erosion:

Regulate activities in coastal areas.

No indiscriminate occupation and exploitation of coastal areas.

4.

Avalanches:

Planting ( Avalanche Protection Forests)

Stepped terraces. Avalanche control piles and fences.

Snow cornice control structures.

Protection structures such as stopping, deflecting and retarding structures.

Removing snow deposits by blasting, prediction and evacuation.

Mechanisms in India:

1.

Holistic drought management program is taken up in the form of Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP).

2.

Disaster Management Act, 2005

3.

Response mechanism:

Disaster management is not mentioned in any list in the 7th

schedule.

Field level response in the rural areas on behalf of the government is by local police station and revenue

functionary.

At present, panchayats do not have the capacity to act institutionally in an effective manner to such situations.

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District Admin under DM/collector is responsible for handling such situations. DM has the responsibility of

overall management of disasters in a district. He has been given power to draw money under the rules of

General Financial Rules/treasury Code. All departments of State Government including the police, fire services ,

public works etc. work under the leadership of DM during the disaster. DM also has the responsibility to request

assistance from AF if need if felt.

Basic responsibility to undertake relief, rescue and rehabilitation operation lies with states.

Relief commissioner is in charge of relief operations. The Relief Commissionerate is usually an adjunct of the

revenue department.

In some states, Revenue Secretary is also ex-officio relief commissioner which has the advantage of providing a

direct chain of command to the DM/collector.

Every state has a Crisis Mgmt. Committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary while a Cabinet Committee

on natural calamities takes stock of situation and is responsible for all policy decisions.

The states are required to maintain CRF ( Calamity Relief Fund)

At the union level, National Calamity Contingency Fund is at maintained and a High level committee of Ministers

under the chairmanship of Minister of Agriculture disburses funds to state govt. if needed by the states.

National Crisis Management Committee ( NCMC) under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, reviews and

monitors crisis situations and it can issue directions to any ministry, department or organization for specific

action needed.

EVERY DOLLAR SPENT ON MITIGATION SAVES 3-5 DOLLARS SPENT ON RELIEF AND REHABILITATION.

???????????????IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

HPAI: highly pathogenic avian influenza