Strengthening India’s Disaster Resilience

• 09 Oct 2025

For Prelims: National Disaster Management Authority, Wetlands, Mausam, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure  

For Mains: Disaster Management in India, Key Disaster Challenges Undermining India’s Resilience and Preparedness.

Source:TH 

Why in News?

India is enhancing disaster resilience through science-based, nature-driven, and finance-linked strategies, guided by the Prime Minister’s 10-Point Agenda on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) (2016). 

• The 15^th Finance Commission’s Rs 2.28-lakh-crore allocation (2021–26) for DRR strengthens this shift from reactive relief measures to proactive, anticipatory governance in disaster management. 

How is India Enhancing Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) to Mitigate Hazards? 

• Institutional Framework: The Home Ministry and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) guide states through multi-hazard planning, using frameworks such as the National Guidelines for Landslides (2023) and the Urban Flood Management Framework (2024) to standardize preparedness and response measures. 
• 10-Point Agenda on DRR: Prime Minister’s 10-Point Agenda integrates DRR into development, uses technology, and strengthens local capacities, covering community preparedness, tech-driven solutions, and global cooperation. 
• Financial Innovation: The 15th Finance Commission allocated Rs 2.28 lakh crore (2021–26) across preparedness (10%), mitigation (20%), response (40%), and reconstruction (30%), reducing reliance on multilateral loans.  
  • Reconstruction packages worth Rs 5,000 crore have already been approved for states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim, and Kerala. 
• Nature-Based Solutions: India focuses on sustainable, ecosystem-based interventions.  
  • Initiatives include bio-engineering for slope stabilization, restoring wetlands to control floods, creating fuel-breaks to prevent forest fires, and enhancing urban green spaces.  
• Technological Measures: NDMA integrates advanced technologies such as remote sensing, site-specific automated weather stations, and glacial-lake monitoring to improve risk prediction.  
  • Hazard mapping and early-warning systems ensure timely alerts to vulnerable communities. 
  • Mobile applications like FloodWatch, Mausam, Meghdoot, and Damini (for lightning) provide real-time, actionable alerts to citizens and farmers, enhancing community readiness.  
  • Programs like the National Cyclone Mitigation Programme (2011–22) have built early-warning systems and 700 cyclone shelters across 8 states. 
• Capacity Building: Geo-spatial training labs are being established, and the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) has expanded courses covering 36 streams of disaster management.  
  • Volunteer networks like Apda Mitra and Yuva Apda Mitra train 2.5 lakh citizens in disaster preparedness. At grassroots level, panchayats and schools run local DRR plans and safety drills 
  • Together, these efforts enhance behavioural readiness and empower communities to respond effectively during emergencies. 
• International Coordination: India engages globally through initiatives like the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and participates in DRR discussions in the G-20, BIMSTEC, and Indian Ocean Rim Association, sharing expertise and learning best practices for multi-hazard resilience. 

What are the Key Challenges in India’s Disaster Resilience? 

• Mnemonic: “FRAGILE” 
• F- Fragile Ecosystems and Cascading Disasters: Himalayan and northeastern regions face compound disasters, where cloudbursts trigger landslides, which in turn cause flash floods. 
  • Unchecked infrastructure and climatic variability amplify risks  as seen in the 2023 Himachal, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim GLOF events. 
• R - Reactive and Relief-Centric Governance:  Disaster policy still focuses on post-event relief instead of pre-emptive mitigation.  
• A- Administrative and Institutional Weaknesses:  Disaster management is over-centralised, leaving districts under-resourced and poorly trained. 
  • Coordination gaps and slow fund flow undermine local-level preparedness and quick response 
• G - Governance Failures and Urban Mismanagement: Unplanned urbanisation and weak regulation have crippled natural drainage, causing chronic flooding.  
  • Over 80% of Indians now live in high-risk districts due to poor land-use enforcement. 
• I - Inadequate Technology and Early Warning Systems: Only 25% of flood-risk districts have functional forecasting limiting last-mile reach. 
• L - Lax Enforcement of Building Codes: Despite 59% of India being quake-prone, compliance with the National Building Code remains poor.  
  • Informal construction and unsafe land use heighten structural vulnerability in cities and towns. 
• E - Expanding Socio-Economic Vulnerability:  Poverty and inequality push people into unsafe, marginal lands with minimal protection. Informal workers bear high climate losses.

What Should be the Road Ahead for India’s Disaster Resilience? 

• Mnemonic: “RESILIENT” 
• R - Risk-informed Planning: Integrate disaster risk in budgets, enforce floodplain zoning and restrict high-risk settlement development. Invest in Nature-Based Solutions like wetlands and mangroves. 
• E- Early Warning & Technology Upgrades: Deploy hyper-local Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems, use IoT micro-sensors for river, slope, soil monitoring and deliver geo-tagged alerts via Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) to mobiles. 
• S- Strengthening Infrastructure:  Enforce disaster-resilient construction codes and retrofit pre-2005 critical infrastructure. Integrate climate-risk in infrastructure planning 
• I- Inclusive Community Preparedness:  Empower District Disaster Management Authorities with legal autonomy, and expert staff. Mandate village/ward contingency plans in first response. 
• L - Local Capacity Building:  Decentralise resources and decision-making; improve local training and readiness. 
• I -Institutional Coordination:  Integrate private sector surge capacity beyond mere Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and conduct inter-agency drills; coordinated response. 
• E- Economic Readiness: Expand disaster insurance and dedicated resilience funds and impose strict penalties for non-compliance to support disaster mitigation. 
• N - Nature-Based Solutions:  Restore mangroves, wetlands, forests; integrate into urban planning to buffer disasters. 
• T - Training: Train 1 million women as ‘Aapda Sakhi’ and establish trauma and critical care centers with trained healthcare staff to provide Psychological First Aid. 

Conclusion 

India’s disaster resilience remains FRAGILE, but adopting the RESILIENT approach focusing on planning, early warning, infrastructure, community, local capacity, nature-based solutions, and training can strengthen preparedness, reduce losses, and support Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and lead India on the path to a resilient nation by 2047. 

Drishti Mains Question:

Examine the major challenges that undermine India’s disaster resilience and preparedness.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

1. What is India’s primary disaster management body? 
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)  coordinates pre- and post-disaster management and guides states on multi-hazard planning. 

2. What are some nature-based disaster mitigation initiatives? 
Wetland restoration, slope bio-engineering, fuel-breaks, and urban green spaces.

3. How is technology used in disaster management? 
Remote sensing, automated weather stations, glacial monitoring, and hazard mapping enhance risk prediction.

4. Which mobile apps provide real-time disaster alerts? 
FloodWatch, Mausam, Meghdoot, KISAN, and Damini alert citizens and farmers. 

UPSC Civil Services Examination Previous Year Question (PYQ) 

Mains:

Q. Discuss the recent measures initiated in disaster management by the Government of India departing from the earlier reactive approach. (2020)

Q. Vulnerability is an essential element for defining disaster impacts and its threat to people. How and in what ways can vulnerability to disasters be characterized? Discuss different types of vulnerability with reference to disasters. (2019)

Q. Describe various measures taken in India for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) before and after signing ‘Sendai Framework for DRR (2015-30)’. How is this framework different from ‘Hyogo Framework for Action, 2005’? (2018)