Disaster management key to biz survival: NDMA official

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 29

The management of disasters and pandemics is the key to survival of businesses as lives depend on it, said Kamal Kishore, Member Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), while Lt Gen SS Mehta, trustee of the Pune International Centre, said national security is much beyond guns, tanks and aircraft as disasters, climate change and pandemics are expected to have serious impact on it.

The two were part of wider panel discussing “imperatives” on the second and last day of a seminar on “National Security Preparedness in the age of Disasters and Pandemics”, conducted as part of the Pune Dialogue on National Security.

Deforestation accelerating disasters

12 NDRF battalions have been deployed across the country and four more are being raised. Mountains are one of the most fragile eco-systems on earth. Deforestation is accelerating the process. Lt Gen SA Hasnain, member, NDMA (on increasing number of disasters in himalayas)

Lt Gen Mehta, former Western Army Commander, alluded to five threats and referred to them as “elephants in the room”.

“The first is internal security, followed by external security. We have China on one side and Pakistan on the other. Warfare in the past has seen kinetic dimension, today we are witnessing a non-kinetic dimension. Security in the non-kinetic dimension is that we have to worry about,” he said.

“Another threat is climate change. If it happens the way it is anticipated, it will have serious impact,” said Lt Gen Mehta. “Then come disaster and pandemics, which will impact all living beings. The fifth threat is from non-traditional threats as security is no more about guns, tanks or aircraft,” he added.

Kishore said the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic is unprecedented. Disaster risk management, he said, is the key to survival of business and all spheres of national life depend on how a disaster is tackled.

“What we are seeing in the Himalayas are cascading disasters. It is hard to make prediction models for these. The nation has achieved success in reducing mortality during cyclones and in heat waves. We need to make infrastructure resilient to current as well as future risks,” he added.

Lt Gen SA Hasnain, member, NDMA, said 12 battalions of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had been deployed across the country and four more were being raised.

Krishna Vatsa, member, NDMA, said, “Disasters in India in the past were seen in the agriculture sector... The green revolution brought an end to droughts and famines. The nations fought a decisive battle in 1971 as by then the green revolution meant no shortage of grain.”

Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology, Indian Meteorology Department, asserted, “In the past five years we invested in technology and now we have a five-day advanced warning system for cyclones.”

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