Disaster Management

Early disaster management mainly involved post disaster management activities.It mostly dealt with search and rescue operations, provisions of relief to persons affected by disaster and finally thier resettlement

Thus there are four components of disaster management:

1) Preparedness

2) Relief and response 

3) Recovery and rehabilitation

4) Prevention

Earthquake management:

 Of all othe natural calamities, earthquake is the one which requires medical facilities most urgently

A) Rescue and relief operations and adequate medical facilities can reduce damage caused to human life and property

B) To get information about earthquake, there are 212 seismograph centres in India .Prior informations can be given to the people after getting the information

C) Properly designed earthquake resistant buildings and other structures can prevent may buildings from falling down .This reduces the number of casualties

D) It is important to sensitive people on the need to construct disaster resistant houses and for preparedness 

A- Architects 

B- Builders

C- Contractors

D- Designers 

E- Engineers

F- Financiers

G- Govt. Functionaries

H- House Owners

6) The following safety measures are to be followed during the earthquake:

a) If you are in the house and unable to go out quickly; you should shift yourself quickly under the table or cot in the corner of the room 

b) Move away from the glass- window 

c) Switch off the main switch of your house 

d) Do not touch any electric wire

e) Move out quickly from the house and remain in the open space until the shaking of earth is stopped

f) obey the guidelines communicated by the media 

g) Move away from the big buildings , trees , electric poles 

I) Stop quickly the vehicle on the road aside and trains on the railway track

Landslide management:

1).  Landslides are more common in hilly regions, so long term land use planning is quite helpful

2) People should avoid living under on overhanging mass of rocks and soils .Such a land can be used for agriculture and other purposes .

3) Development of plant cover on loosenened rock fragments is one of the most effective landslide mitigation measures

4) Building should be equipped with adequate system of rescue and relief measures and there should be at hand medical facilities as far as possible

5) First aid and other facilities should be instantly provided to the physically injured.

6) Landslide prone areas should be covered iron net along the slides of railway tracks and roads

Flood Management:

Govt of India commissioned a National 

Flood Commission in 1976

Flood Management has two dimensions

A) Flood control measures and 

B) rescue and relief operations

a) Construction of small dams on the rivers

b) Raise and strengthen the side dams

c) Control the water discharge of river by making canals 

d) Removal of unwanted silt from the river and thus increasing the depth of river which enhances the water carrying capacity

e) Construction of bigger dam is avoided which increases the water load on the Earth's surface 

f) Reforestation programmes should be carrried out 

g) Houses in flood prone areas should be vacated before the arrival of flood and houses are to be built on platforms or ekecated areas 

h) Sand bags can be used for redirecting the water flow in the event of flood 

I) Flood forecasting and warning Systems should be installed.

Flood warning in India is issued by Central water Commission (CWC) , Irrigation, flood Control Department and water resource department

j) Immediate rescue operations for the people surrounded in the flood by employing boat , helicopter or any other means .

k) Medical facilities should be availed to the flood affected people

l) Relief operation should be carried out at each and every level 

Drought management:

1) Afforestation and Reforestation programme should be implemented honestly so that green shelter belts are developed

2) Adoption of water - harvesting measures

3) Buffer stocks of food grains are to be maintained

4) Multipronged drought prone area programmes are to be followed

5) Control of population explosion

7) Control of soil and water erosion

8)watershed management

Cyclone Management:

1) Establishing a state of the cyclone early warning system (EWS) involving observations, predictions , warning and user friendly advisories

2) Commissioning of the National Disaster Communication Infrastructure (NDCI) to provide dedicated and failsafe

Communication to the National, state and District Disaster Management Authorities and official concerned

3) Implementing the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) in all the 13 coastal states and UTs.

The objective of NCRMP is to strengthen structural and non structural cyclone mitigation efforts and capacity Building so as to reduce the risk 

4) Setting of exclusive eco -system monitoring network to study the impact of climate change 

5 . Setting up of a National Cyclone Disaster Management Institute NCDMI is one of the coastal states to address all issues related to cyclone risks

Tsunami: 

Tsunami is Japanese word meaning the waves created near the port.

Tsu means  port

Nami means waves

Tsunami Management:

After.the Tsunami hazard , Govt of India made a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister on 28 Dec 2004 

Some suggestions of NDMA are:

1) 26 countries are interlinked by a network which give information prior to natural calamities.

India should be one of the member country

2) To get disaster sensitive system from America

3) All the cyclone Management measures are to be adopted 

Man- made Disasters:

Man is the slave of lust , hatred and deception and thus man is not free errors. Negligence , misuse of equipment, misuse of knowledge and science achievement, lack of proper precautions and terrorist activities cause several disasters

Chemical and Industrial Accidents:

Such accidents are occurred due to sudden release of chemicals due to technical fault

Effects: 

1) Several people die and get injured due to toxic substances. These  toxins can cause cancer, heart failure, loss of eyesight 

2) These accidents pollute air, water and land resources and disturb the ecological balance

Mitigation strategies:

1) Local population should be aware in case an accident occurs 

2) Regular checking and proper maintenance of industries and factories should be undertaken

3) Warning Systems should be installed

4) Industries should be located away from residential areas

Nuclear Disaster:

 In 1945 , first nuckear disaster occured in the history of the world when the first atom bomb was dropped on 6 Aug 1945 on a Japanese city Hiroshima 

The ways of preventing such nuckear disasters are:

a) All the nation's should have agreed on not to use nuclear weapons in the future

b) Proper and adequate safety measures must be adopted at the nuclear power plant 

Epidemics or Biological hazards:

Epidemic means the large scale spread of infectious diseases. 

Epidemic Management:

 1) Community people should have understanding of their roles in public health system

2) People should get their children vaccinated at regular intervals 

3)Medical team should have a contingency plan in case an epidemic break 

4) Proper sanitation facilities

5)Good hygienic conditions and basic health care

6) Cigarette, bidis and pan etc should not be used

Mechanical disasters:

Such Disasters are occurred due to mechanical faults and driving errors

• Rail accidents are due to faults in rail tracks 

•The accident of roadways and smaller vehicles is due to drunken driving, engine faults , foggy weather 

• The aeroplanes are crashed due to engine faults

✍️Agricos 

Vaishnavi Nimkar 🌾🌱