Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Let us prepare our disaster management

Dear friends

July 2013

The recent tragedy at Uttarkhand, where the official number of casualties has been slated to have crossed a thousand people and where over a lakh have been rescued in around 15 days is the result of nature’s anger. Human intervention and ‘developmental activities’ have been attributed as the main reasons for the magnitude of such large scale natural calamities. The death toll too, is perceived to be much higher than the official figures if we take into consideration the statements of the victims who were rescued and look at the disturbing footage dominating television screens across the nation at the moment.

It is no doubt that our defence force did a marvelous job and endured all sorts of hardship in their attempt to help their fellow countrymen. We salute our defence personnel for their outstanding service during this period of emotional and physical torment in Uttarkhand. Having said this, we cannot be happy with the overall performance of our rescue operations. Our disaster management, is certainly not up to the mark. In this day and age, when the technology to predict weather changes and the onset of such calamities is available to us, why can’t we have an advance warning system of such calamities which would effectively help us avoid such catastrophes? During the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami which struck Japan in 2011, Japan had prepared for such a catastrophic event. Warning systems, evacuation routes and coordination had already been prepared well before the tsunami hit due to which, countless lives were saved.

In hindsight, there were many loopholes and inadequacies that were glaringly obvious during the Himalayan tsunami which has devastated Uttaranchal. Lack of governance is the cause of many problems in the country and many will agree with me when I say that it is this lack of governance that also made matters worse during this particular natural disaster. It has been found that the National Disaster Management Agency, the apex body for disaster management in the country had asked the Uttarakhand Government for permission to station a permanent NDRF Battalion in the State two years ago. But the permission never came. In light of this startling revelation, I am prompted to ask whether the debacle in Uttaranchal could have been mitigated to a large extent had this permission been granted two years back. Would the disaster management efforts have been better equipped and more well trained to take stock of the situation and address it if they would have been trained to do so for the last two years? My question here is – why did the Uttaranchal Government take so long to grant this request and what were the authorities concerned thinking while doing so?

This disaster which has struck Uttaranchal is a wake up call for the country and especially its hills regions. It is a time for all of us to introspect and to call into questions decisions such as the one taken by the Uttaranchal Government which are ticking time bombs and which, sooner or later could be the factors deciding whether we live or die.

Dr. K. K. Jhunjhunwala