More effective prevention strategies would not only save

tens of
billions of dollars, but tens of thousands of lives. Funds
currently
spent on intervention and relief could be devoted to
enhancing
equitable and sustainable development instead, which
would
further reduce the risk of war and disaster. Building a
culture of
prevention is not easy. While the costs of prevention
have to be paid
in the present, their benefits lie in a distant future.
Moreover, the
REDUCING DISASTER
RISK
A CHALLENGE FOR
DEVELOPMENT
DISASTER MANAGEMENT ACT, 2005 (SEC –2)
DISASTER : A CATASTROPHE, MISHAP, CALAMITY OR
GRAVE OCCURRENCE IN ANY AREA
 ARISING FROM NATURAL OR MAN MADE CAUSES

 OR BY ACCIDENT OR NEGLIGENCE WHICH RESULT IN

SUBSTANTIAL LOSS OF LIFE OR HUMAN SUFERRING

 OR DAMAGE DAMAGE TO AND DESTRUCTION OF

PROPERTY,
 OR DAMAGE TO AND DEGRADATION OF ENVIRONMENT,

 AND IS OF SUCH A NATURE AND MAGNITUDE AS TO BE

BEYOND THE COPING CAPACITY OF THE COMMUNITY OF

THE AFFECTED AREA.
Disaster is the
interface of an
extreme physical
event and Human
vulnerability
Disasters cause humanitarian, economic, and ecological
impacts  

Direct
Loss of capital stock

Economic Costs Indirect

e.g. business
interruption

Disaster Humanitarian Effects Macroeconomic

Impacts
e.g. loss of GDP

Ecological Effects
 Determinants of natural disasters
 
A natural hazard is the necessary condition for the
occurrence of a disaster. However only when hazards
intersect with exposed, vulnerable elements at risk will a
disaster occur and cause humanitarian, economic and
ecological effects. Natural hazards thus are triggering
disaster events, but it is the elements at risk and their
degree of vulnerability inherent in a social system that will
define the final consequences. Thus natural disaster risk
can be said to be defined by three factors: hazard, elements
at risk, and vulnerability
 VULNERABILITY
It is defined as “the extent to
which a community, structure,
service and geographic area is
likely to be damaged or disrupted
by the impact of particular hazard,
on account of their nature,
construction and proximity to
hazardous terrain or a disaster
DISASTER RISK
•RISK is a measure of expected loses due to a
hazard event of a particular magnitude occurring
in a given area over a specific time period.
The level of RISK depends upon –
• Nature of the Hazard.
• Vulnerability of the elements affected.
• Economic value of those elements.
 DISASTER
MANAGEMENT
•Disaster management is basically a range of
activities designed to mitigate the effects of
disaster and to provide a framework for helping
people at risk to avoid or recover from the impact
of the disaster.
•It involves steps to be taken prior to, during and
after the disaster.
An important question is the
extent to which successive
disasters have thwarted the
attainment of government
development objectives of
poverty reduction and
sustained growth. A related
issue is whether there are
measures that could be taken
Bringing disaster risk
reduction and development
concerns closer together
requires three steps:
a. The collection of basic data on disaster risk and
the development of planning tools to track the
relationship between development policy and
disaster risk.
b. The collection and dissemination of best
practice in development planning and policy that
reduce disaster risk.
Risks Governments Assume
Once probabilistic estimates of loss are determined, it is
essential to know the responsibility of the government
for those losses. Generally, two broad categories of
government responsibility can be defined:
• risk arising from government ownership of assets,
• risk government assumes for others.
In the first category is the probability of loss to
government buildings, including schools and hospitals,
and infrastructure, like roads and bridges.
The second category focuses attention on risk that the
government assumes for others. This generally includes
the risk to homeowners, agriculture, local governments,
and the poor.
 STATUS OF
DISASTER
PREPAREDNESS
IN
WEST BENGAL
 Relief in West Bengal and possibly for that matter in the country, is
fall out of the great famines of colonial era. The British India prepared
the Bengal Famine Code, 1913 and Bengal Famine Manual, 1941
to tackle the impact of famine.
 Relief was part of the Department of Food, Relief and Supplies, under
the State Government. The Dept published the Manual for Relief of
Distress in 1959 by replacing the two manuals
 The Department of Relief in its present form was created by
bifurcating the then Department of Relief and Social Welfare in 1982.
 The Department of Relief restructured to Department of
Disaster Management in 2006.
Area 88752 sq.km
Population 8,01,76,197 (2001
& Density census) 7
903
Sex ratio Male 51.72 % Female 48.28%
Rural / Urban ratio Rural 71.97% Urban 28.03%
Worker & non-worker ratio Worker 36.78% Non-worker
63.22%
Literacy Male 77.58% Female 60.22%
Area under cultivation 62.4%
Cropping intensity 177%
No of districts 18 (excluding
Kolkata)
No of sub divisions 66
No. of Blocks 341
No. of Gram Panchayats 3354

No. of mouzas 40782

No. of municipalities 120

No. of municipal corporations6

No. of districts under DRMP 10

No. of blocks under DRMP 194

No. of municipalities under 76

DRMP

No. of mouzas under DRMP 26540

 FLOOD
 CYCLONE/HAILSTORM/KALBAISHAKHI
 EARTHQUAKE
 LANDSLIDE
 DROUGHT
 EROSION
 State level:
1. State Disaster Management Authority with Chief Minister as the
Chairperson, MIC of Dept. of Disaster Management as the Vice-
Chairperson and MICs of the Depts of Finance, Agriculture, H&FW,
Fire, I&W, CD and Chief Secretary of the State Govt as members
2. State level Disaster Management Committee consisting of the
Secretaries of the related Line Depts. and headed by the Chief
Secretary,
 District level:
District Disaster Management Authority headed by the District
Magistrate as the Chairperson, Sabhadhipati of Zilla Parishad as Co-
Chairperson and SP, CMOH, Exe. Engineer of I&W, SDOs and ADM
in charge of D M as members
•Sub-Divisional level: Sub-Divisional level Disaster Management
Committee headed by the SDO with sub-division level officials of the Line
Depts.,Municipal Chairman, BDO, as Members and SDRO/OC, Relief as the
convenor.
•Block level: Block level Disaster Management Committee headed by
the Sabhapati of Panchayat Samity with the Block Development Officer as
the Convener and Block level officials of the Line Depts. as Members.

•Gram Panchayat level: Gram Panchayat Disaster Management

Committee headed by the Prodhan of the Gram Panchyat with tagged
officials of the BDO’s office/Line Depts..

•Gram Sansad level: Gram Sansad Disaster Management Committee

headed by the elected representative and villagers
 State level Disaster Management Committee:
Meets twice to review preparedness – April for pre-
monsoon and August for post-monsoon under the
Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, where concern
Departments represented by the Secretary present their
respective preparedness plan (this year, the pre-monsoon
meeting was held on 24th April).

 District level Disaster Management Committee:

Reviews preparedness of the district.
•IMD: issues warning on the impending cyclone/rainfall through-
- High priority telegrams to the State Govt. & the District
Administration
-Telecast through Doordarshan
- Broadcast through AIR
- Press Bulletins
- Periodical warning through Satellite based CWDS
- Warnings by other methods, like, Tele-communication

• Local level warning: through miking

• 31 Cyclone Warning Dissemination Sets are installed at offices of BDOs,

SDOs, DMs, Police Stations and at Fishing harbours to issue and

disseminate cyclone warnings
 Executive Engineer, Irrigation & Waterways Dept.
sends daily report on Water discharge, Rainfall and Level
of water flow in the rivers to the CS/RS/CWC/IMD and
others,

 Central Water Commission sends forecast on advent of

flood from its office at Salt Lake, Jalpaiguri and Durgapur
to the State Govt.

 IMD front office at Jalpaiguri assess and forecast rainfall,

rise in water level in North Bengal rivers
 DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION AND PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS:
dissemination of warning, identification of vulnerable areas, search and rescue, mounting
relief operation, assessment of damages suffered, coordinating role,

 DISASTER MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT:

to coordinate efforts of the State Govt., procurement and allocation of relief materials,
administration of CRF, interaction with/briefing the media, interaction with GOI,

 CIVIL DEFENCE: rescue operation, to provide First Aid,

 POLICE: search & rescue operation, maintenance of L&O

 HEALTH: treatment, vaccination of affected people,

 FOOD & CIVIL SUPPLY:

storing of food grains & POL at strategic places, rushing emergency food supply to the
affected areas if situation so demands,
•PWD: restoration of road communication linkages,

•POWER: restoration of power supply,

•PHE: restoration of drinking water supply, public hygiene,

•IRRIGATION: maintenance/repair of embankments and sea dykes, reclamation/ desalination

of inundated land, notification of affected mouzas,

•ARD: supply of fodder/feed, vaccination of animals in the affected areas,

•AGRICULTURE: to assess damage to crops and distribution of agri. relief,

•FISHERIES: alerting/warning fishermen, to assess their damages & provide relief,

•NGOs: undertake search and rescue operations, relief operations, medical aid to affected
people and animals, manage gruel/community kitchens, etc.
 WARNING/COMMUNICATION &
RESPONSE NET WORK
Dist level
Line Depts.
Dist
IMD Adm. Zilla
Parishad

Sub-div level
Line Depts.

Sub-Div Panchayat
State Adm. Samiti
Govt
Block level
Line Depts.

Block Gram
Panchayat GP level
Line Depts.
 Control room or Emergency Operation Centre at the
State/District level function 24x7 during emergency

 State EOC is located in the Writers' Buildings

 District EOCs, particularly in the flood prone districts function

24x7 during the monsoon season

 Steps taken to equip all district and some vulnerable sub

divisional control rooms with modern communication
equipments from the Calamity Relief Fund.
 291 permanent rescue shelters exist in the State
 Other permanent shelters, like, colleges, higher
secondary/secondary /primary school and semi-
govt. buildings have been identified and
documented in the District Disaster Management
plans for use as temporary shelters during crisis,
 More rescue shelters are being constructed under the
State plan every year
 In all the districts, emergency helipad sites have been
identified along with high land for air dropping,
 District Disaster Management Plan documents address
of the owners of country/mechanised boats, generators,
cranes, tractors, GR/MR dealers,
 In Darjeeling district, strategic sites have been identified
and earmarked in collaboration with the defence
officials, which can be used as helipads, for setting up
of temporary rescue shelters and hospitals during any
calamity,
 Renaming of the Dept. of Relief to the Dept. of Disaster
Management – with effect from 29th June, 2006

 Conversion of the Relief Code of 1959 into Disaster

Management Code- Amendment made to the decades
old Relief Manual and will be published soon after the
MIC, Dept. of Disaster Management approves it
31
 Districts affected by
FLOOD

 North Bengal - Cooch Behar,

Jalpaiguri, Uttar Dinajpur,
Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda;

 South Bengal - Nadia, Howrah,

Murshidabad, North 24
Parganas, South 24 Parganas,,
Hooghly, Burdwan, Birbhum,
Paschim Medinipur, Purba
Medinipur;

 Flood is scarce in Darjeeling in

North Bengal and Bankura &
Purulia in South Bengal
 West Bengal is severely prone to flood,
 Flood is caused by sudden release of water form the
reservoirs located in Jharkhand and due to heavy
rainfall in the upper catchments of the rivers
originating in Sikkim, Bhutan,
 Flood occurs any time between June and first
fortnight of November
 Since 1975, West Bengal has suffered 23 major
floods
 Since 1977, the State has suffered losses to the tune
of Rs.36864.21 crores in terms of damage of
houses, crops and public properties.
 Districts affected by
CYCLONE

 Very high damage risk

zone(v=50m/s) - Paschim Medinipur,
Purba Medinipur, South 24 Parganas,
North 24 Parganas, Howrah,
Hooghly, part of Nadia, Burdwan and
Bankura
 High damage risk zone(v=47m/s) -
major part of Nadia, Burdwan and
Bankura, Murshidabad, Malda, Uttar
and Dakshin Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri,
Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, part of
Purulia
 Moderate damage risk
zone(v=29m/s)- major portion of
Purulia
 West Bengal has two cyclone seasons – pre-
monsoon and post-monsoon cyclone during April-
May and Nov-Dec, respectively,
 Pre-monsoon cyclone, which causes wide spread
hailstorm is known in the state as
KALBAISHAKHI,
 Average number of depressions in the Bay of
Bengal resulting into cyclone during the two seasons
- Pre-monsoon period – 11
- Post- monsoon period - 28
 World Bank-supported programme for under taking long term
cyclone mitigation measures in 3 coastal districts and in the city
of Kolkata,
 Mitigation measures include construction of cyclone shelters,
coastal shelter belt plantations, re-generation of mangrove
plantation, construction of embankments to stop sea water
inundation, construction of missing road/bridge links,
 Training and capacity building,
 Preparation of capital-intensive schemes by the Dept. of Irrigation
and Waterways completed,
 Proposals for construction of cyclone,
 Proposal for augmenting the infrastructural facility of ATI for
training and capacity building sent to NIDM,
 IIT, Kharagpur has been entrusted with the task to study the
threat perception of West Bengal from Cyclone and suggest:
 Risk scenario of the vulnerable areas,
 Identify reasons of Vulnerability,
 Recommend Short and Long term mitigation measures to be
undertaken for cyclone risk management
 IIT, Kgp. is to give its recommendations by Sept.,
 On the basis of the Cyclone Risk and Vulnerability Report by
IIT, KGP., we will plan and implement Cyclone Risk and Crisis
Management Programme for the State.
 Districts affected by
EARTHQUAKE

Very high damage risk zone V –

major part of Cooch Behar and some
part of Jalpaiguri,
High damage risk zone IV –
remaining part of Cooch Behar and
Jalpaiguri, entire Darjeeling, Uttar
and Dakshin Dinajpur, major part of
Malda,North 24 Parganas and South
24 Parganas
Moderate damage risk zone III –
remaining part of Malda, North and
South 24 Parganas, Nadia,
Murshidabad, Howrah, Hooghly,
Bankura, Birbhum, Paschim and
Purba Medinipur and slice of Purulia,
Low damage risk zone II – remaining
part of Purulia
 Bengal Engineering and Science University(BESU), Jadabpur
University, Durgapur Regional Engineering College and Jalpaiguri
Engineering College are the designated State Resource
Institutes(SRI) for imparting training on earthquake risk
management technology,
 Faculty members of the Department of Civil Engineering of these
SRIs already trained as TOT by IIT, Kharagpur,
 Hazard Safety Cell (HSC) constituted under PWD,Four members of
HSC have been selected as faculty members to serve as the fifth SRI
and are to undergo training shortly,
 BESU trained 80 practicing engineers already under National
Programme for Capacity Building of Engineers in Earthquake Risk
Management,
 Strengthening of HSC being made with fund received from the
MHA, GoI. Terms of Reference already prepared by the HSC,
 Financial aid being given to the SRIs for enriching their libraries
 Training of masons in construction of earthquake and cyclone-
resistant houses in rural areas conducted in the districts—4300
masons trained in construction of earthquake-resistant buildings,
 Awareness generation programme continuing under the Disaster
Risk Management Programme
 Department of Municipal Affairs have amended the Municipal
Act incorporating latest version of BIS Codes for construction of
earthquake-resistant buildings and houses in the Municipalities,
 Department of Urban Development have prepared draft
amendment to the West Bengal Town & Country Planning Act
for the same purpose,
Districts
Affected by
DROUGHT

Entire Purulia,
part of Paschim
Medinipur,
Bankura and
Birbhum
 Rain water harvesting measures being undertaken in
the disaster prone districts,
 Watershed schemes and expansion of irrigation
network being undertaken
 Increasing off-farm employment through
opportunities like collection of non-timber produce
from the community forests, raising goats, carpentry
etc. being taken up.
Names of villages prone to landslide in the district of
Darjeeling sent to the Geological Survey of India for
analysis and to suggest measures for arresting
landslides
 The following important types of mass movements have been recognized

: a) Slump, b) Debris slide and c) Earth-rock flows.

a) Slump

A very good example is represented by a large slumping slope near

Pagljhora (23 mile post from Siliguri). The gradual subsidence of the Hill
Cart

Road for a length of about 500 m have been noticed since 1966.

b) Debris Slide

The debris slides are generally of greater magnitude and are quite
common.
Districts affected by
EROSION

Malda, Murshidabad
and Cooch Behar

45
 Irrigation and Waterways Dept. along with the Zilla
Parishads is responsible for maintenance of river
embankments in the districts,
 Work of containing erosion in Malda within the
jurisdiction of the Farrakka Barrage Project(FBP) is
looked after by FBP authority,
 The districts of Malda, Murshidabad, South-24
Parganas and North 24-Parganas are the worst affected
districts,

46
 Workshop / Training Programme are being Conducted at ATI
 Training of the State Nodal officers, NGOs, District Master Trainers team
 completed,
 Consultation with resource units on development of different types of manuals,
Development of Information Education Communication (IEC) completed,
 Orientation of the District Nodal officers and NGOs completed,
 Five Training Manuals, viz.,Block Disaster Management Training Manual, GP
Disaster Management Training Manual, GS Disaster Management Training Manual,
Guidelines for preparing Community Based Disaster Preparedness Plan, Monograph
on Flood Management, published,
 Preparation of Disaster Management Plans
• State Disaster Management Plan developed in 2003, being revised now by
Jadavpur University,
• District Disaster Management Plans developed and are updated every year
• District Disaster Management Committees have been constituted in 10
programme districts,
• Formation of Disaster management Committees:
Block Disaster Management Committee formed in 194 programme Blocks

47
• Gram Panchayat (GP) Disaster management Committees
formed in 1921 GPs out of 1921 GPs
• IDRN portal taken up in all the districts and is updated,
• Disaster Management Plans prepared in 25676 Gram
Sansads, 1910 Gram Panchayats, 80 municipalities,194
Blocks, and 18 Districts
• 357 members of 10 DDMCs, 5668 members of 194 BDMCs,
39943 members of 1921 GPDMCs, 2202 members of 79
Urban Local Body DMCs and 270065 members of 447
GSDMCs trained in disaster management
• 3591 members at district level, 5886 at block level, 23290 at
GP level and 159932 at GS level trained on First Aid
• 16970 teachers at district level trained on disaster
management
• 7116 elected members of the three-tier Panchayat Raj
Institution at block level trained .

48
 30,000 pieces of clothing, 38000 pieces of cotton blanket, 11000
pieces of tarpaulin sheets and 1 MT milk powder worth Rs 1.84
crs. were despatched to Orissa in 1999 after the Super Cyclone,
 50,000 pieces of tarpaulin sheet worth Rs. 85 lakhs were sent to
Gujrat in 2001 after the Bhuj Earthquake
 42,000 pieces of tarpaulin,20,000 food packets, 10,000 Sal poles,
generators, electric appliances, etc., worth Rs. 2.24 crs. were sent to
the A&N islands for post-Tsunami reconstruction,
 The State Government also coordinated the rescue and relief
works for Andaman & Nicobar Islands through the Netaji Subhas
International Airport, Kolkata Port and Howrah Railway Station,
 Rs.1.00 crore was contributed to the J&K Chief Minister’s Relief
Fund along with 20,000 pieces of tarpaulin sheets, worth Rs.94.40
lakhs.
 50,000 pieces tarpaulin sheets were sent to Bihar in recent flood.