Villagers to be trained in disaster mitigation

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 8

Gram Sabhas will be actively involved in capacity building and training of village volunteer force in quick response and preparedness to mitigate the effect of disasters as villagers are the first to respond to the disasters.

The volunteers would be imparted practical training by the state disaster management authority with the help of gram sabhas. The Deputy Commissioners will be asked to provide basic equipment like emergency lights, ropes, etc, to be used in the wake of disasters to the Gram Sabhas, said Special Secretary Disaster Management D D Sharma.

“Himachal being prone to 25 out 35 identified disasters, strategy for risk reduction was crucial and as such we plan to blend the traditional knowledge with the modern techniques to minimise the impact of disasters”, he stated.

As more than 80 per cent of the population resides in villages, efforts are being made to educate panchayat representatives on disaster mitigation and capacity building. The first step in this direction was taken on October 2 in the statutory gram sabha meeting. At present, there are 3,243 gram sabhas, 75 panchayat samitis and 12 zila parishads in the state.

“There are specific pockets prone to different types of disasters like landslides, earthquake, heavy rains and cloudburst. Therefore, documentation of villages prone to specific kind of disaster and preparing the villagers to mitigate the effects of the disaster in advance would help in saving precious lives and drastically reduce the damage to property”, said Sharma.

As per the data available with the state disaster management authority, the overall vulnerability of the state suggests that Chamba, Kinnaur Kullu and part of Kangra and Shimla districts fall in very high vulnerable risk category; Kangra, Mandi, Una, Shimla and Lahaul and Spiti in high vulnerable risk category and Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Solan and Sirmour in moderate vulnerable risk status.

In case of earthquake vulnerability, Kangra, Hamirpur and Mandi districts fall in very high vulnerable category. In case of landslides Chamba, Kullu, Kinnaur and part of Kangra and Shimla districts are in high risk zone. Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur also fall in high avalanche hazard vulnerability zone while Chamba, Kullu,Una and Kinnaur districts falls in high flood hazard vulnerability.