The very severe cyclonic storm Biparjoy smashed into the coastline of Kutch on the evening of June 15 at 140 kmph and cut a swathe of destruction across Gujarat and Rajasthan. In the face of nature’s fury, the singular achievement of the disaster response apparatus was the zero loss of life after the cyclone’s landfall in Gujarat. This is a testimony to the growing competence of the nation in facing disasters of this magnitude – a continuous progression of improvement after tragically losing 9,885 human lives in the Odisha super cyclone in 1999, to bringing the loss of human life down to 128 in the super cyclone Amphan in 2020.
The organised and coordinated response to Biparjoy is a pathbreaking achievement that needs to be analysed and replicated. After India suffered three major disasters in quick succession – the Odisha super cyclone in 1999, the Kutch earthquake in 2001 and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 – a dedicated structure of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and National Institute of Disaster Management was put in place.
With the realisation that investing in mitigation, risk reduction and response gives multifold returns during disasters, an increasing amount of attention was paid to improving our capacity. This was also appropriate, keeping in view that India is the third most disaster-prone country in the world.
The Centre specially reinforced the capacity of NDRF, which was raised in 2006 with eight battalions, and has now grown to 16 battalions. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah have put great emphasis on making India disaster resilient, especially in the last few years, by personally supervising disaster-related preparedness and response. The PM has also given a vision of Disaster Risk Reduction by the 10-point programme enunciated by him at the Asian Ministerial Conference in 2016 in New Delhi and by the establishment in 2019 of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure that more than 40 nations have joined.
A significant contributor to the success against Biparjoy was a no-gaps preparedness approach. The atypically slow progress of Biparjoy across the Arabian Sea gave us ample time for this. With the 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 has the competence to respond effectively to all manmade and natural disasters. This is also exemplified by our response to the tragic earthquake in Turkey on February 6 this year, when India was one of the first countries to respond with a large contingent of 152 NDRF rescuers and 99 personnel from an Army field hospital. Ace pilots from the Indian Air Force and their planes carried our vehicles to Turkey, 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 against Biparjoy was the in-depth planning by Gujarat. This was maybe the most important reason and included traditional as well as innovative measures. The vulnerable population was identified down to the last person, and 143,053 people were evacuated. Trees were pruned to prevent them from getting uprooted and 4,317 hoardings were dismantled to ensure these did not get ripped by high-speed winds and become flying fatal projectiles; 1,152 pregnant women were pre-emptively shifted to hospitals during the passage of the cyclone, and 707 of them gave birth. 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 State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams, who worked round-the-clock alongside the local administration for spreading awareness about dos and don’ts, and convincing people to evacuate. These teams also acted during and after the cyclone to bring 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 aspirational standards. The key factors remain community awareness, in-depth planning for every anticipatable eventuality, and pre-emptive action. To replicate this success, states also need the availability of a year-round, dedicated, well-equipped and trained SDRFs in adequate numbers.
Such disasters are becoming more frequent because of the climate crisis; 7,348 disasters were reported in the period between 2000 and 2019, compared to 4,212 during 1980-1999. To prepare for these, NDRF has been working tirelessly for the capacity building of SDRFs and spreading awareness through its school safety and community awareness programmes. NDRF continually strives to improve its competence and takes pride in dedicating its services to the nation and to humanity at large.
Atul Karwal is DG, NDRF. The views expressed are personal.
