Shivang Satya Gupta
Jammu, April 08: Prevention is better than cure is an old saying but nobody in Jammu and Kashmir government has ever bothered to take note of it but now things are changing and so is the climate which has forced even the hard nuts among bureaucratic hierarchy to crack and think futuristic to prevent further damage.
While the new government has been assuring to take preventive steps but it needs to do some research and adopt some latest technologies and strategies to prepare a futuristic plan if at all it means what it says.
The first and the foremost is to tame the rigid bureaucratic behavior of the babu-dom which includes engineers, administrators and executers and once they fall in line the next target is to tackle the rampant corruption prevalent in the state which has been hampering the growth and development of the state.
Adopting latest technologies, strategies and research is the third step because if we don’t have corruption free administration no latest technology or research can save us from natural furry.
In fact in India tackling disasters either natural or manmade are generally discussed in their aftermath even though it should be planned in advance to prepare the strategy to tackle and mitigate disasters in a responsible and effective manner.
According to a study published by vishal singh the “World Development Report (IFRCRC, 2001) categorizes natural disasters into hydro meteorological (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc) and geophysical (landslides, droughts, etc) categories. The scope of unnatural disasters broadly encompasses conflicts, civil strife, riots and industrial disasters.
During 1991-2000 natural disasters in the world have killed 66,59,598 people, accounting for 88 percent of all deaths due to disasters. Similarly, unnatural disasters have killed 86,923 people during the decade. Nearly two-thirds of the people killed in these disasters hail from developing countries like India, with only four percent of the casualties being reported from highly developed countries (IFRCRC, 2001).
Jammu and Kashmir has become India’s most disaster prone state now particularly after last year’s September flooding of Srinagar city and March rain-flood furry which is still looming large over the state.
A closer analysis of what transforms a natural event into a human and economic disaster reveals that the principal causes of vulnerability include rapid and uncontrolled urbanization, persistence of widespread urban and rural poverty, degradation of the environment resulting from the mismanagement of natural resources, inefficient public policies, and lagging (and misguided) investments in infrastructure.
The Orissa Super Cyclone and the Gujarat Earthquake taught the nation a hard lesson. The experiences of the stakeholders like the state, voluntary sector and the communities at large helped in initiating the planning process pertaining to preparedness and mitigation of disasters.
The study further reveals that the role of NGOs in disaster management is of immense value besides incorporating Community Based Disaster Preparedness and Development of block, Gram Panchayat and Village disaster management plans. It says that there is a growing need to look at disasters from a development perspective. Disasters can have devastating effect on communities and can significantly set back development efforts to a great extent.
The need of the hour is to chalk out a multi-pronged strategy for total disaster management comprising prevention, preparedness, response and recovery on the one hand and initiate development efforts aimed towards risk reduction and mitigation on the other.
A pro-active stance to reduce the toll of disasters in the country requires a more comprehensive approach that comprises both pre-disaster risk reduction and post-disaster recovery. It is framed by new policies and institutional arrangements that support effective action. Such an approach should involve Risk analysis to identify the kinds of risks, faced by people and development investments as well as their magnitude, Prevention and mitigation to address the structural sources of vulnerability, Risk transfer to spread financial risks over time and among different actors, Emergency preparedness and response to enhance a country’s readiness to cope quickly and effectively with an emergency, and post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction to support effective recovery and to safeguard against future disasters”.
This clearly indicates that if Jammu and Kashmir has to grow, develop and progress it must have a advance plan to continue the development inspite of natural calamities as with the climate change such natural bullying would continue but the state should prepare itself to find the alternative in advance and prevent the large-scale damage to life and property.