Introduction

The  National Disaster  Management Act, 2005 (NDM Act 2005) which lays down institutional and coordination mechanism for effective Disaster Management (DM) at the National, State, District and local levels created a multi-layered institutional system consisting of State Disaster Management Authority  (SDMA)  headed  by  the   Hon.  Chief  Minister  and  the  District Disaster  Management  Authorities  (DDMA)  headed  by  the  The  District Collector / District Magistrate and co-chaired by Chairperson of the   local bodies. The institutional arrangements have been set up consistent with the  paradigm  shift  from  the  relief-centric  approach  of  the  past  to  a proactive,  holistic  and  integrated approach for  Disaster  Risk  Reduction (DRR)  by  way  of  strengthening  disaster  mitigation,   preparedness  and response.

The losses and impacts that characterise disasters usually have much to do with the exposure, vulnerability and coping capacity of people and places as they do with the severity of the hazard event. Therefore, there is no such thing as a natural disaster, but disasters often follow natural hazards.

According to the revised United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) terminology, Disaster Management (DM) is “the organizing, planning and application of measures preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters” and Disaster Risk Management (DRM) is “the application of disaster risk reduction policies and strategies to prevent new disaster risk, reduce existing disaster risk and manage residual risk, contributing to the strengthening of resilience and reduction of disaster losses” (UNISDR 2016. The sense, in which DM Act 2005 uses the term disaster management, covers nearly DM, DRRand DRM without maintaining a strict distinction between them.

The term Disaster Management as used in the NPDM 2009 and the DM Act 2005 document  is  comprehensive  covering  all  aspects  –  disaster  risk  reduction,  disaster  risk management, disaster preparedness, disaster response, and post-disaster recovery. This document uses the term with the same meaning as defined in the DMAct 2005:

A  continuous  and  integrated  process  of  planning,  organising,  coordinating  and implementing measures which are necessary or expedient for the following:

• Prevention of danger or threat of any disaster,
• Mitigation or reduction of risk of any disaster or its severity or consequences, Capacity-building,
• Preparedness to deal with any disaster,
• Prompt response to any threatening disaster situation or disaster,
• Assessing the severity or magnitude of effects of any disaster
• Evacuation, rescue and relief, and
• Rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Need for the State Disaster Management Plan(SDMP)

The Disaster Management Act, 2005 Section 23 (1) reads “There shall be a plan for disaster management for every state to be called State Disaster Management Plan. Apart from the legal mandatory requirements, the hazard profile and disaster history of the state demands for a comprehensive state disaster management plan to be in place for coordinated and streamlined management of disaster in the state” .