Disaster Management and Risk Reduction
Exam focus
Hazard and disaster concepts, risk components, the disaster cycle and the Indian institutional framework with regional hazards.
Core rules
- A hazard is a potential damaging event; a disaster occurs when hazard and vulnerability exceed capacity. Risk ≈ (Hazard × Vulnerability) / Capacity.
- Vulnerability can be physical, social, economic or environmental. Capacity includes resources, preparedness and infrastructure.
- Disaster cycle: mitigation and preparedness before; response during; recovery and reconstruction after.
- Sendai Framework 2015–2030: understand risk, strengthen governance, invest in resilience and enhance preparedness.
- India: NDMA under the 2005 Act, SDMA, DDMA; NDRF for response.
- West Bengal hazards: cyclones and storm surges in the Sundarbans, floods, riverbank erosion, landslides in the Darjeeling hills and heat waves.
Worked example
Village A has hazard score 8, vulnerability 9 and capacity 3, so risk ≈ 24. Village B has hazard 8, vulnerability 5 and capacity 8, so risk = 5. Equal hazards do not mean equal risk; higher capacity and lower vulnerability reduce disaster risk. This justifies embankments, early warning and cyclone shelters rather than purely post-event relief.
Traps
- Saying a hazard is a disaster; a cyclone over an unpopulated sea is a hazard, not a disaster.
- Treating relief as mitigation.
- Ignoring capacity in risk calculations.
- Confusing the Sendai Framework with the Paris Agreement.