Disaster Management Vision – New Paradigm Shift
The Global Assessment Report of UNDRR (2018) has presented a new picture of disaster risk in developing countries that warns of major risks from air pollution and biological hazards, besides floods, drought, landslides and earthquakes. Over 4 per cent of GDP loss is projected annually if disaster risk reduction is not put into practice. The report estimated a USD 79.5 billion loss from climate-related disasters in 20 years in India alone. Although the recent years see a substantial reduction in deaths due to disasters, there is an increasing property, livelihood and resource damage that has to be managed.
Investing in disaster risk reduction for—sustainable and resilient infrastructure; ecosystem services and environment management; climate change adaptation; and, capacity building for research, education and culture of safety the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR 2015-2030) priority would be to seek a planning agenda particularly at sub-national and local levels. The second paradigm shift from disaster centric to hazard-vulnerability-environment centric, over the past decade is inculcated in India as well. With several examples and pilots at various levels, the paradigm needs strengthening and vertical and horizontal scaling.
