More than six decades after the Independence, India's urban water quality is worse than ever before. Admittedly, the population has grown tremendously. Equally, agricultural and industrial activities and the levels of urbanization have increased significantly. However, even though population of the country is around 1.2 billion and industrial activities and urbanization have increased significantly during the post-Independent period, the country's economic development has also accelerated substantially, as also has its knowledge, experience and technology.
Water, an easily available and free commodity which is imperative for survival, is soon going to become the most difficult to obtain. This fact alone was the centre-point of discussion at the Water Conservation session of PBD 2012. Not only was the problem discussed but plausible solutions water conservation methods were also suggested.
On March 30, 1949, the grand unification of the erstwhile princely states of Rajputana gave birth to Rajasthan in the Union of India. Since then, March 30th is celebrated as Rajasthan Diwas every year. The annual celebrations aim to showcase the desert state's culture and heritage and revive the traditional sports, cuisines and folk-art.
Introduction
Like every year, OIFC (Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre) proved their mettle this year as well by organizing B2B meetings on the 6th Market Place at Pravasi Bhartiya Divas.
The OIFC Market Place has been developed as a premier business networking forum for the PBD delegates to facilitate the expansion of their economic linkages with India, and encompasses the setting up of business meetings of PBD delegates with OIFC's state and knowledge partners that match buyers and suppliers, through a pre-event schedules. The Market Place was presented as an exclusive meeting place cum information centre for all the delegates to get answers to their queries.
India has been traditionally vulnerable to natural hazards on account of its unique geo-climatic and social conditions. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides have been recurrent phenomena, affecting 85% of its geographical area. About 60% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 12% is prone to floods; about 8% of the total area is inclined to cyclones and 68% of the area is susceptible to drought. Disaster risks in India are further compounded by increasing vulnerabilities related to the steadily growing population, rapid urbanization, increasing industrialization, development within high risk zones, environmental degradation and climate change. Significantly, the recent years have witnessed a marked increase in frequency as also intensity of natural disasters such as the Orissa super cyclone (1999), Gujarat earthquake (2001), Tsunami (2004), Jammu & Kashmir earthquake (2005) and Bihar floods (2008).
These developments have rightly brought about a paradigm shift in approach of the government from hitherto mere relief and response-centric approach to a holistic method encompassing the entire gamut of prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction in dealing with disasters. In recognition of this, the government took a defining step on December 23, 2005, by enacting the Disaster management Act, which envisaged the creation of disaster relief agencies like National Disaster Management Authority ( NDMA), headed by the Prime Minister and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs), headed by the respective Chief Ministers of the states, to spearhead and implement a holistic and integrated approach to disaster management in India for natural disaster recovery among other forms of disaster responses
ROLE OF National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)
The DM Act, 2005, has made the statutory provisions for the constitution of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for the purpose of specialized response to man-made and natural disasters.
NDRF is constituted of eight battalions, two each from the CRPF, BSF, CISF and ITBP. Each battalion will provide 18 self-contained specialists search-and-rescue teams of 45 personnel each, including engineers, technicians, electricians, dog squads and medical/paramedics. The total strength of each battalion is 1,149. Out of the eight battalions four battalions have the capacity to respond to CBRN emergencies in addition to natural disasters.
Deployment
These NDRF battalions are strategically located at 10 different locations in the country based on the vulnerability profile to cut down the response time for their deployment. NDRF units are deployed at Pune, Gandhinagar, Kolkata, Guwahati, Arakkonam, Mundali, Bhatinda, Noida, Patna and Vijaywada.
NDRF has proved its importance in achieving this vision by highly skilled rescue- and-relief operations, regular and intensive training and re-training, familiarization exercises, community awareness and capacity building within the area of responsibility, carrying out mock drills and joint exercises with the various stakeholders.
Disaster Response
After its constitution in 2005, the NDRF with its swift and highly-skilled rescue operations has emerged as most visible and vibrant force of the NDMA. NDRF personnel are invariably trained in courses like flood rescue, collapsed structure search and rescue, medical first responders, rope rescue, rescue from high-rise building, nuclear, biological and chemical emergencies, ddignified disposal of bodies etc. NDRF personnel are trained in prestigious institutes like DRDO, BARC, CME, DRDE, NISA, Army, Navy and Air Force as well in foreign countries like the USA, Singapore, China, Finland, Korea, Switzerland etc.
Earlier, the NDRF has proved its efficacy with its commendable performance during various disasters including the drowning cases, building collapses, landslides, and devastating floods and recently during Cyclone Aila in 2009.
During the Kosi breach in Bihar in August, 2008, which was declared as national calamity by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, NDRF personnel actively engaged themselves in rescue operations and relief duties on a war footing in Bihar's Supaul, Madhepura, Araria and Purnia districts. About 780 NDRF personnel trained in flood rescue operations along with 153 high capacity inflatable boats and other rescue equipments were deployed in the flood-hit areas. The swift and highly skilled operations of NDRF saved more than 100,000 people trapped in swirling waters of river Kosi.
Impressed with prompt and efficient response of NDRF, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar approached PM Singh for a NDRF battalion to be stationed in Bihar and offered 65 acres of land at Bihta. Similarly, the Andhra Pradesh government has also requested for a NDRF unit.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) commendable rescue operations were no less appreciated during the 2008 floods in Orissa, Maharashtra, Kerala and Assam.
On May 25, 2009, Cyclone Aila hit West Bengal coast with a fury unprecedented in recent history. It claimed least 94 lives, seven of them in Kolkata, and affected over 40 lakh people. More than six lakh houses were destroyed completely or damaged partially. NDRF promptly responded to the devastating situation and 600 personnel of NDRF with 84 boats and other rescue equipments started rescue and relief operations at cyclone affected areas of district 24 Pargana North and South of West Bengal. During the operations NDRF personnel rescued around 2,000 trapped persons and distributed 50 truckloads of relief materials to the affected people.
Training
The DM Act, 2005, envisages a paradigm shift from the erstwhile response centric syndrome to a proactive, holistic and integrated management of disasters with emphasis on prevention, mitigation and preparedness. This national vision, inter alia, aims at inculcating a culture of preparedness among all stakeholders and training of different stakeholders. Training is the most important tool to achieve this end. In future, the key to efficient disaster response will depend primarily on effectiveness of training and re-training of Specialised Disaster Response Forces. With this vision, a detailed "Training Regime for Disaster Response" has been prepared by NDMA identifying the specific disaster response training courses and devising a unified, structured and uniform course module as well as syllabus for these training courses.
While the NDRF is being trained, re-trained and equipped as a specialist force for level three disasters, it is equally important to ensure capacity building of state police personnel who will invariably be responding to any natural or man-made disasters. To ensure this, a two-pronged strategy is being suggested to the states: first, to train state police personnel in the basics of disaster management and secondly, to train at least one battalion equivalent out of their state armed police units as State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) on lines of the NDRF. In addition to police personnel, the SDRFs may be constituted from existing resources of the Fire Services.
NDRF also conducts regular mock exercises on various disasters like cyclone, flood, earthquake, NBC emergencies, mass causality management etc. Participation in such exercises on the one hand improve the professionalism of NDRF personnel to tackle the real emergency situations and on the other provides an opportunity to interact with various state government officials and to develop cordial relations with them that can be of great help during response to actual disasters.
Community awareness/capacity building and familarisation programme 2011 is under way in a big way at the respective area of responsibility of each NDRF unit.
Capabilities of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)
The NDRF was constituted with eight battalions and within a short span of time this force has established its effectiveness and credibility among the countrymen and as a result the Central Government was pleased to sanction two more NDRF battalions. Today, with 144 specialized, fully equipped search and rescue teams, NDRF is the most visible, multi-skilled, multi-disciplinary and high tech Force, which certainly is a great achievement in five years. Out of 144 teams, 72 have additional capability of responding in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) emergencies. These teams are equipped with Hazmat vehicles and state-of-the-art CBRN detectors. These 72 teams have unique distinction of having capabilities to respond to natural and CBRN emergencies.
Rescue Operation in Japan
An independent and self-contained team of NDRF was detailed for international disaster assistance operation. A 46-member team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reached Japan on March 28 to provide disaster relief-and- rescue assistance in the tsunami-struck town of Onagawa. The team, led by Alok Avasthy, commandant of NDRF, comprised four gazetted officers, including a medical officer, six subordinate officers and 36 other ranks. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team carried Collapsed Structure Search and Rescue (CSSR) equipment, CBRN equipment and relief material like portable shelters, tents, blankets, medicines, water bottles. Operating from their base at Rifu-cho, the team worked in sub-zero temperatures and retrieved several bodies. Besides, Japanese currency equivalent to Rs 3 crore was recovered, and handed over to the Miyagi Police. The operation concluded on April 6.
The team returned to the country after completion of a very successful mission on April 8, a mission that showcased our heartfelt sympathy and concern for the affected people and generated much goodwill among the public of Japan for our country. This was National Disaster Response Force's (NDRF's) first rescue mission abroad that highlighted our capabilities in any rescue mission and the team was able to prove its mettle in the face of extremely harsh condition on the ground. Operationally and Technically Indian team was found second to none because of International standard equipment and training.
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