New Delhi: Addressing the ‘Conference on Disaster Resilience-2024’ held at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on Thursday, February 15th, Kamal Kishore, Member and Head of Department, NDMA, highlighted the critical importance of ongoing learning and flexible planning in disaster resilience and mitigation efforts. Stressing the importance of adaptability, Kishore suggested that empowering volunteers with local knowledge would be the next crucial step in disaster response. He spoke of the vision behind ‘Apda Mitra,’ aiming for communities that are well-prepared and capable of rapid response, while also noting that effective planning remains an indispensable and continuous endeavor.
Vivek Srivastava, Director General, Fire Services, Civil Defense & Home Guards, focused on the importance of a competent leader in disaster management. Emphasising the need for decisive action, he spoke about the challenges of inter-agency interoperability. Stressing ineffective communication among agencies, he advocated prompt measures to enhance coordination and response capabilities in disaster situations.
Dr. Mrutyunjay Mohaptra, Director General of Meteorology, IMD, stressed the important steps for multi-hazard early warning. He said that identification and understanding of the risk were of paramount importance. “Thereafter, we need to monitor and assess the risk and reach out to those under that. It’s only after that there can be an effective response,” said Dr. Mohapatra.
Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, distinguished fellow, TERI, focused on the identification of disaster on three parameters. He said that the scale of damage should be large, and the event should not be a slow event like global warming. According to Dr. Ghosh, the risk should be societal in nature to be classified as a disaster.
He informed that disaster risks involved assessing responsibility levels, setting pollution and safety standards, transferring risk, considering societal resilience, cost-sharing, equity, tax strategies, and determining who bears and pays for risks.
The Conference was organised by Medilytix Digital Convergence in association with The Energy & Reources Institute (TERI) and Resqore Technologies Pvt Ltd. Prominent among those who attended the Conference included Navin Kumar, Revenue Secretary & Relief Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh; Dr. VK Sharma, Vice-Chairman, Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority; Narendra Bundela, IG, NDRF; Uday Kumar, Deputy Director-General, NIC; Sreeramam GV, CEO, NeoGeoInfo Technologies Pvt Ltd; Krishanu Acharya, CEO, Suhora Technologies Ltd; Amit Seymour, Director, Satpalda, and Jaideep Tiwari, Senior Specialist-Sales, Hexagon.