It is imperative to enhance India’s disaster management capabilities to help the government handle myriad disasters efficiently. The advancement of technologies, particularly in data acquisition, high end computation and processing have made significant progress in the recent past. It is important to invest and to create capabilities in various institutions to help them process disaster related data scientifically. This will consequently help manage disasters better and minimise the loss of human lives and infrastructure.

We also need to develop a dense disaster observational network so that data collection coverage and processing for various scenarios for disasters management are done quickly. In recent times, the warning system for various disasters have improved significantly with the active support of India Meteorological Department, Department of Space and other related state departments. Recent floods and landslides in Kerala have compelled us to think more innovatively and propose concrete scientific action plans based on the meteorological and historical data of floods and landslides. This would be helpful to identify areas which are safe for reconstruction.

The special issue brought out by GnY would be of great help to the larger scientific community as well as to the planners for better management of the disasters in India.