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Disaster management: shutting the stable after the horses have bolted

George Iype in Bhubaneswar

** Every year, at least four cyclones of varying intensity hit parts of India's nearly 6,000-kilometre-long coastline involving states like Orissa, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

** Every year, earthquakes of varying degrees on the Richter Scale shake northern Indian states. In 1993, some 10,000 people died and millions became homeless in the country's worst-ever earthquake that hit Latur in Maharashtra.

** In 1994, plague struck Surat killing at least 70 people -- and creating countrywide panic.

** Hundreds of people die of severe cold and of heat waves in north India every year.

Whenever natural calamities like cyclones, earthquakes, landslides and heat waves descend on unsuspecting hinterlands and kill thousands, the President, the prime minister, chief ministers and Opposition politicians express their shock and pledge immediate relief measures.

But soon politics takes precedence over rescue and relief management of the disaster. The state government would demand that the Centre declare the disaster as a national calamity and release millions of rupees to rehabilitate the homeless.

The Centre would vacillate on the state government's suggestions and demands and a slanging-match erupts between the two while the misery of the victims continues to increase.

When the super cyclone devastated 12 coastal districts of Orissa on October 29, what happened in the first week after the disaster was not immediate rescue and relief operations, but non-stop arguments between the Centre, the state and Opposition politicians.

Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang urged Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to declare the cyclone as a national calamity so that the funds released by the Centre would be considered as a grant and not as a loan. While Gamang put in a request for Rs 25,000 million, Vajpayee released Rs 2,000 million.

A miffed Gamang refused to accompany the prime minister when the latter made an aerial survey of the cyclone-ravaged areas. Vajpayee then set up a central task force headed by Defence Minister George Fernandes to oversee emergency relief and evacuation operations. Since then there has been continuing war of words between Gamang, Fernandes and Union Minister for Mines Naveen Patnaik.

"All these prove that timely disaster management and relief operations is not high on politicians' agenda whenever calamities of this magnitude strike across the country," says Dilip Kumar Bisoi, a disaster management expert based in Bhubaneswar.

According to Bisoi, it took nearly seven days for the central and state governments to step into action and provide rudimentary evacuation and relief measures in hundreds of marooned villages in Orissa.

"The meteorological department had predicted the cyclone four days before it hit coastal Orissa. But when the storm actually hit the people, the state government had just 21 concrete storm shelters to protect the people," he said.

"No one can stop super cyclones and earthquakes. But it is high time the government came out with a disaster management system to reduce the severity of calamities," Bisoi explained.

Experts like Bisoi have submitted to the central and various state governments a number of recommendations that should form a national disaster management plan to ensure that tragedies of the magnitude of the Orissa cyclone does not recur.

The plan calls for adequate finance and resources for pre-disaster preparations, raising and training a special force to deal with natural disasters, setting up nodal agencies across the country for relief operations and establishment of a disaster communication system linking all the districts.

Another disaster management expert Dr P V Unnikrishnan says the damage potential of a calamity can be reduced by various effective methods like protective shore works, afforestation, warning systems, evacuation, construction of raised areas and modifying constructions for wind resistance.

"It is not technology alone that will help us to tackle calamities like cyclones. The need of the hour is human preparation. For this, the central and state governments have to wake up from their slumber and come out with a national disaster management action plan," he said.

In fact, it is not that India -- which accounts for nearly 40 per cent of all natural calamities in South Asia -- does not have any disaster management department. There are many departments and agencies handling natural calamities but in times of need they end up in chaos and confusion.

Meteorological officials based in Bhubaneswar blame the tardy reaction to the cyclone warnings to the state government. "Our disaster warning system went into action three days before the cyclone. We faxed alerts to all districts and sounded warnings over police wireless and All India Radio. But when the storm hit Orissa, the provisions for tackling the cyclone were woefully inadequate," a senior met official said.

He says instead of making adequate and timely arrangements, the state government looked to the Centre for assistance. But the Centre insists that its role and duty is just limited to give funds and to keep central organisations such as the army, para-military and the railways on the standby for help.

In New Delhi there is a National Disaster Management Committee that functions under the ministry of agriculture. But officials point out that this committee that consists of ministers and top officers rarely meets before or after a national calamity!

The Centre has made it known to the state governments that on the ground a disaster has to be managed by the state administrations.

Each state government has relief commissioners and each district has natural disaster management committees. Moreover, many relief commissioners and officials work under the department of revenue of the finance ministry.

"But in the past one decade, all these departments and disaster management committees have been of no use in tackling calamities. The problem is that no one really knows who is doing what," says Balhan Sagar, a voluntary officer with World Vision, a relief organisation.

He says when warnings of disasters are predicted, simple measures like concrete shelters in villages, timely evacuation of targeted people, providing satellite phones and back-up power systems could immensely help.

"But in India, we wait for calamities to occur to think about how to provide relief and rescue operations," he added.

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