India has Sharply Cut Disaster-Related Deaths

NEW DELHI: Home minister Amit Shah on Monday said India, thanks to its policy initiatives in disaster management, early warning capabilities and advanced preparations, had been able to reduce loss of lives due to disasters to less than 1% of the numbers recorded just over a decade ago .
Citing the example of India’s effective handling of cyclones Phailin in 2013, Hudhud in 2014 and Fani earlier this year, Shah, in his inaugural address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) joint exercise on ‘urban earthquake search and rescue’ here, said loss of lives was reduced to 64 during Cyclone Fani in Odisha, from 10,000 lives lost in the 1999 Odisha Super Cyclone.

Talking about India’s focus on disaster-resilient infrastructure to minimise deaths, Shah said India was championing a coalition for disaster-resilient infrastructure, which will be multi-hazard oriented and will also help minimise losses to property and infrastructure.

The four-day SCO joint exercise, being organised by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), is the outcome of the 9th meeting of heads of government departments of SCO countries dealing with prevention and elimination of emergency situations, held in Kyrgyzstan in 2017.

Inaugurating the SCO joint exercise, Shah said it would be useful for improving collective preparedness and building a common understanding of internationally recognised procedures to coordinate post-earthquake responses. Establishing the centrality of SCO nations in tackling disasters, the home minister said none of the global targets on reducing disaster losses can be met by 2030 unless achieved by the SCO countries.

Source: ToI

Image Courtesy: TOI