nearly a decade later, India’s disaster ecosystem still shows gaps and deficiencies as it battles the biggest biological disaster, COVID-19

In 2011, India’s National Disaster Response Force helped recover dead bodies from the radioactive material released by the meltdown of three reactors at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan resulting in emissions and explosions. The NDRF’s expertise in handling chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological disasters during the triple disaster in Japan (triggered by the earthquake in Tohoku that led to another devastating Tsunami followed by the meltdown) was globally recognised.

But nearly a decade later, India’s disaster ecosystem still shows gaps and deficiencies as it battles the biggest biological disaster, COVID-19.

Speaking S.N. Pradhan, Director General, National Disaster Response Force, said though the country has come a long way since 2005 when the National Disaster Management Act came into force, disaster preparedness across states continues to be plagued by lack of motivation, incentivisation, training and capacity building. Jharkhand and some northeastern states do not have State Disaster Response Forces (SDRFs) while others like Kerala have shared manpower. “In some states the SDRFs exist only on paper and in others they are operating on borrowed manpower from state armed forces, police and civil defence. It is like a motley crew,” he said.