Disaster Management in India: NDMA, NDRF, and Legal Framework

Introduction

India is one of the world's most disaster-prone countries, affected by earthquakes, floods, cyclones, droughts, landslides, avalanches, and increasingly, climate-related extreme events. The Disaster Management Act (2005) provided a comprehensive legal and institutional framework, replacing the earlier relief-centric approach with a holistic prevention-mitigation-preparedness-response-recovery paradigm.

Hazard Profile of India

Geological Hazards

• Earthquakes: ~59% of land area susceptible to seismic damage (Zone IV and V). Himalayan belt (Zone V) includes Delhi, Guwahati, Srinagar.
• Landslides: Himalayan regions, Western Ghats, North-East India.
• Tsunamis: Coastal areas, especially after 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (Andaman, Nicobar, Tamil Nadu, Kerala).

Climatological Hazards

• Cyclones: 8% of land area (East Coast - Andhra, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu; West Coast - Gujarat).
• Floods: 12% of land area flood-prone (Brahmaputra, Ganges, Mahanadi, Godavari basins).
• Droughts: ~68% of land area drought-prone (Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bundelkhand region).
• Heatwaves: Increasing intensity since 2015. Particularly severe in central and north-west India.
• Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs): Emerging threat in Himalayan region.

Biological/Technological

• Chemical industrial disasters: Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1984) remains the world's worst industrial disaster.
• Nuclear: Nuclear installations (Maharashtra,...