India Disaster Report 2014-17

The vulnerability of India towards multiple disasters is well known. Every year numerous catastrophes nudge the nation and with changing climatic conditions the frequency and intensity of these events are increasing. India had been responding to disasters for many years and had been assisting cross boundary response also. After 1994 Yokohama convention where India was one of the signatories, Nations decided to shift their focus from reactive approach to proactive approach. Keeping this in mind , India also shifted its focus to disaster risk reduction. This approach led to enactment of Disaster managementAct in 2005, which clearly mandates National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) with functions such as Capacity Building through training, documentation, research and awareness campaigns. It also mandates NIDM to support Central Ministries, State Governments and UTAdministrations in the field of disaster risk reduction.

There is a famous saying this shows the importance of documentation. In year 2011, NIDM initiated a step to document disastrous events of each year in the form of India Disaster Report (IDR). The aim of this documentation is to discuss consequences and probable causes of the disaster in conjunction with the steps taken for prevention, preparedness, relief and recovery of the disaster. This review of disasters every year will provide some lessons to be learnt for future and decipher the present gap in our approach towards disaster risk reduction and address it. It will also help NIDM in the path of capacity building and supporting various government agencies to focus more on disaster risk reduction which will fulfill its mandate given under DMAct 2005.

The major disasters which are documented in this edition of IDR are Jammu & Kashmir Floods, Chennai Floods, Puntingal fire, Cyclone Vardah, Cyclone Hudhud, Malin landslide, Patna Stampede, etc. A brief prologue, consequences, probable causes, response and relief operations are texted for these disasters.