The Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Biparjoy smashed into the coastline of Kutch in the evening of 15th June at 140 kmph and cut a swathe of destruction across Gujarat and Rajasthan. In the face of such fury of nature, the singular achievement of the disaster response apparatus was zero loss of life after landfall in Gujarat. This is a testimony of the growing competence of the nation in facing disasters of this magnitude, as a continuing progression of improvement after tragically losing 9,887 human lives in Odisha super cyclone in 1999 and bringing loss of human life down to 128 in the super cyclone Amphan in 2020.
The organised and coordinated response to Biparjoy is a path breaking achievement that needs to be analysed and replicated. After India suffered three major disasters in quick succession – Odisha super cyclone in 1999, Kutch earthquake in 2001 and Tsunami in 2004, a dedicated structure of National Disaster Management Authority, National Disaster Response Force and National Institute of Disaster Management was put in place. With the realisation that investing in mitigation, risk reduction and response gives multi-fold returns in disaster situations, there has been increasing amount of attention paid to improving our capacity to handle such large scale disasters. This is also appropriate, keeping in view that India is the third most disaster prone country in the world. The Central Govt has specially reinforced the capacity of the National Disaster Response Force, which was raised in 2006 with eight battalions, and has now grown to sixteen battalions. The Prime Minister and Union Home Minister have given great emphasis on making India disaster resilient, especially in the last few years, by personally supervising disaster related preparedness and response. The Prime Minister has also given a vision of Disaster Risk Reduction by the 10 point program enunciated by him in the Asian Ministerial Conference in 2016 in Delhi and by the establishment of Centre for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure; more than 40 nations have already joined this initiative.
This is one of the reasons – a no-gaps preparedness that contributed to the success in facing Biparjoy. The atypically slow progress of Biparjoy across the Arabian Sea gave us ample time for this. With attention of the highest functionaries in the country and their constant encouragement and motivation, NDRF has become a unique example in the world, of a standalone, year-round, dedicated disaster response force that now has the competence of responding to all manmade and natural disasters effectively. This is also exemplified by our response to the tragic earthquake in Türkiye on Feb 6 this year, when India was one of the quickest to respond and the Indian contingent of 152 NDRF rescuers and 99 personnel of a Para Field hospital was one of the largest. Kudos to the Indian Air Force; their ace pilots and planes carried even our vehicles to Türkiye, allowing NDRF rescuers to get into action as soon as we landed, with little local support.
Aside from the proactive deployment of NDRF teams, and the preparedness of other central agencies and defence forces, what was critical in ensuring the success in Biparjoy was the depth of planning by the State of Gujarat. This was maybe the single most important reason and included traditional as well as innovative measures. Vulnerable population was identified to the last man and 1,43,053 people were evacuated. Trees were pruned to prevent them from getting uprooted and 4,317 hoardings were dismantled to ensure these do not get ripped by high speed winds into flying fatal projectiles. 1,152 pregnant ladies with delivery period during the passage of the cyclone were pre-emptively shifted to hospitals and 707 children were born in a safe environment during the cyclone. A very strict enforcement mechanism kept people inside their homes and away from risky behaviour. All this was made possible with the pre-emptive deployment of 18 NDRF and 12 SDRF teams, who worked round-the-clock alongside local administration for spreading awareness about do’s and don’ts and convincing people for evacuation. These teams also acted during and post cyclone, for bringing the situation back to normal as soon as possible.
The benchmark set by such a well-oiled and coordinated response to a major disaster, by reducing casualties to zero has set inspirational standards. The key factors remain community awareness, as appreciated by the Prime Minister, in-depth planning for every anticipatable eventuality, and pre-emptive action. To replicate this success, states also need availability of a year-round, dedicated, well equipped and trained SDRF in adequate numbers.
Such disasters are becoming more frequent because of climate change; 7,348 disasters were reported in the period 2000-2019, compared to 4,212 during the period 1980-1999. To prepare for these, NDRF has been working tirelessly for the capacity building of SDRFs and spreading awareness through its School Safety Programs and Community Awareness Programs. NDRF continually strives to improve its competence and takes pride in dedicating its services to the nation and to humanity at large.
Atul Karwal, IPS, DG, NDRF
