A disaster is defined as a sudden event that exceeds a community's ability to cope. While often natural, disasters can be human-caused through negligence. Disaster management aims to reduce hazards through planning rather than prevention. In India, the National Disaster Management Authority coordinates national responses but more organized efforts are needed, as recent disasters showed a lack of preparedness. Society should cooperate with authorities to improve collective disaster response.

1. GUNJAN SHARMA
Assistant Professor

2. A disaster is a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disturbs the functioning of a
community or society and causes human, material, and environmental losses that
exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope with using its own resources.
Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origin as well such as
major fire or leakage in a nuclear plant due to human negligence.
Disaster management is a well-planned strategy for making efforts to reduce the
hazards caused by the disasters. Disaster management though does not avert or
eliminate the threats; it focuses on formulating plans to decrease the effect of
disasters. In India, national disaster management authority (NDMA) has been set
up to coordinate responses to natural or man-made disasters across the country.
NDMA runs various programs for mitigation and responsiveness for specific
situations.
These include the national cyclone risk management project, school safety project,
decision support system etc. But going by the lack of preparedness exposed by the
outbreak of recent disasters in the country, the NDMA needs to make more
organized and effective efforts to mitigate the losses caused by disasters. In fact,
the society as a whole must make efforts to co-operate with the central and state
agencies in coming out with a collective response to deal with disasters.

22. SESSION FOR DISCUSSION AND
SUGGESTIONS