Advancing Disaster Resilience in India | 06 Oct 2025

India faces multiple natural hazards requiring comprehensive disaster management strategies that extend beyond post-disaster relief. The 15th Finance Commission marked a paradigm shift by allocating ₹2.28 lakh crore for disaster risk reduction. The government has adopted nature-based solutions, established early warning systems, and created specialized volunteer networks to build community resilience. Through programs like modernizing fire safety, training lakhs of Apda Mitras, India is mainstreaming disaster preparedness at the grassroots level. This multi-faceted approach, guided by the PM's Ten Point Agenda on Disaster Risk Reduction, positions India as a global leader in climate-resilient infrastructure development.

What are the Major Advancements India has Made in Disaster Management? 

• Significant Reduction in Cyclone Mortality: India has demonstrated a monumental success in achieving a near-zero casualty target for major cyclones by leveraging advanced early warning and meticulous evacuation protocols.  
  • This outcome is a direct result of the continuous improvement in Impact-Based Forecasting (IBF) and the effective use of Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) for last-mile dissemination.  
  • For instance, when Cyclone Biparjoy hit the Gujarat coast in 2023, the proactive evacuation of over 100,000 people and livestock ensured zero human and animal casualties.  
• Professionalization and Global Role of NDRF: The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has evolved into a highly professional, multi-skilled, and rapidly deployable specialized rescue and response unit, earning significant international recognition.  
  • The NDRF's swift, coordinated, and successful deployment for 'Operation Dost' in Turkey and Syria following the devastating February 2023 earthquake highlighted India's capability in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR).  
• Institutionalization of Resilient Infrastructure through CDRI: India has cemented its global leadership in disaster resilience by spearheading the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), now involving more than 40 countries, mainstreaming resilience in development planning.  
  • This initiative is translating into domestic action by integrating risk assessment into major projects like the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).  
  • CDRI's recent collaboration with DoT (Department of Telecommunications) led to a Disaster Risk and Resilience Assessment Framework for over 0.77 million telecom towers, ensuring the continuity of critical communication networks during disasters. 
• Leap in Technology-Driven Early Warning Systems: The integration of advanced technology like AI/ML, GIS mapping, and the CAP system has made forecasting highly granular, moving from conventional weather warnings to sector-specific, impact-based alerts.  
  • Mobile applications like FloodWatch, Mausam, Meghdoot, KISAN and Damini (for lightning) provide real-time, actionable alerts to citizens and farmers, enhancing community readiness.  
  • The network of seismic observatories has more than doubled from 80 in 2014 to 168 by early 2025, significantly improving the monitoring capability for earthquake-prone regions. 
• Enhanced Financial Preparedness and Allocation: The financial framework for disaster management has been significantly strengthened with substantially increased, dedicated allocations for both response and long-term mitigation.  
  • The total allocation for the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) was sharply increased to ₹1.24 lakh crore for the 2014-2024 period, compared to approximately ₹38,000 crore in the preceding decade.  
  • Additionally, the creation of a National Disaster Mitigation Fund with a substantial corpus underscores a committed shift toward financing large-scale, preemptive infrastructure works and mitigation projects. 
• Legislative and Governance Reforms at Urban Level: Recent legislative proposals, such as the Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 aim to address urban vulnerabilities and institutional gaps by mandating localized governance.  
  • The amended Act envisions the establishment of an “Urban Disaster Management Authority” for state capitals and major cities with municipal corporations. 
  • This move is crucial for strengthening the hands of Municipal Commissioners to implement risk-informed urban planning and prepare local disaster management plans at the city level. 

What are the Key Disaster Challenges Undermining India’s Resilience and Preparedness? 

• Cascading Climate-Induced Disasters in Fragile Ecosystems: The Himalayan region is increasingly vulnerable to cascading hazards where one extreme weather event triggers a series of secondary disasters, overwhelming local capacity.  
  • This is due to rising climatic variability and rampant unregulated infrastructure projects. An IIT-R study on the 2023 events in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand noted that each primary event, like a cloudburst, spawned 2.3 secondary hazards, such as landslides and flash floods.  
    • Also, the South Lhonak Lake GLOF (Glacial Lake Outburst Flood) in Sikkim in October 2023 exemplifies the fragile ecosystem. 
• Failure of Urban Governance and Infrastructure: Rapid, unplanned urbanization has severely compromised natural drainage, resulting in chronic urban flooding and massive economic losses, demonstrating a failure in governance and resilient infrastructure planning.  
  • Due to poor regulation enforcement, more than 80% of India's population lives in districts highly vulnerable to extreme hydro-met disasters. 
  • A recent report stated that Bengaluru may need nearly 28 billion rupees ($339 million) to restore a drainage network damaged by rapid real estate development as repeated floods threaten to disrupt work and life in the IT hub. 
• Institutional Over-Centralization and Grassroots Gaps: Disaster management efforts remain over-centralized and often reactive, with insufficient functional autonomy, technical capacity, and fund flow to the District and local levels.  
  • The delays and complexities in fund disbursement from the NDRF (National Disaster Response Fund) and SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) post-disaster severely hinder timely recovery and effective relief. 
• Technological Deficiencies in Early Warning Systems: Early Warning Systems often lack the granularity and last-mile connectivity necessary for non-cyclonic, localized, and rapidly evolving threats, resulting in delayed community response.  
  • An estimated 72% of Indian districts are exposed to extreme flood events, but only about 25% have functional river-level flood forecasting stations.  
  • The absence of robust, localized Early Warning Systems was a key factor in the high casualties and infrastructure loss during the disasters.  
• Deepening Socio-Economic Vulnerability: Pre-existing socio-economic inequalities and poverty significantly amplify disaster impact, as vulnerable populations are forced to inhabit high-risk, marginal lands with minimal resilient housing and safety nets.  
  • In India, recent heatwaves and floods disproportionately affect daily wage laborers and residents of low-lying informal settlements, who lack adaptive resources. 
  • In a report in 2024, the International Labour Organization (ILO) warned that more than 70% of all workers worldwide are at risk of exposure to excessive heat.  
    • It added that India lost an estimated $100 billion from heat-induced productivity losses.  
    • Small businesses and informal workers like construction workers, farmers, street vendors and food delivery partners bore the brunt. 
• Deficient Enforcement of Building Codes and Land Use: Lax enforcement of the National Building Code (NBC), 2016, and unscientific land-use planning in hazard-prone areas increase structural vulnerability, particularly in seismic zones and floodplains.  
  • Around 59% of the landmass of India (covering all states) is prone to earthquakes of different shaking intensities yet the lack of strict retrofitting policies for old buildings and informal construction practices dramatically raise fatality risks.  
  • The risk of building collapse is chronic in densely populated metros, underscoring the poor regulatory oversight. 
• Reactive, Relief-Centric Approach Over Mitigation: India's framework, despite its paradigm shift post-2005, still leans heavily toward post-disaster response and relief rather than proactive risk reduction and long-term mitigation investments in infrastructure and ecological buffers.  
  • Natural catastrophes caused significant losses of $12 billion (over Rs 1 lakh crore) in India in calendar year 2023, highlighting insufficient investment in preemptive measures like protective embankments, resilient infrastructure, and coastal ecological restoration projects. 

What Measures Should India Implement to Improve Disaster Preparedness and Response? 

• Mandating and Empowering Grassroots Disaster Governance: The District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) must be legislatively strengthened, ensuring full functional autonomy, dedicated expert staff, and ring-fenced budgetary powers for local mitigation.  
  • This requires making the preparation of multi-hazard-specific Village and Ward-level Contingency Plans a legally mandated, time-bound compliance measure for all Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).  
  • Decentralization must be operationalized by devolving a fixed percentage of State Disaster Mitigation Fund (SDMF) to DDMAs for exclusive use in local risk-reduction projects like drainage de-silting and retrofitting, overcoming central inertia. 
• Creating a National Disaster Resilience and Audit Framework: An overarching National Disaster Resilience Audit framework should be institutionalized, making it mandatory for all major public infrastructure (power grids, highways, railway bridges) to undergo a triennial, independent multi-hazard vulnerability assessment and structural retrofitting plan.  
  • This framework must link central and state funding for infrastructure development (e.g., in the National Infrastructure Pipeline) to strict Disaster-Resilient Construction Codes, penalizing non-compliance and ensuring that all new construction adheres to high seismic and flood-resistant standards. 
• Integrating Climate-Risk into Financial and Urban Planning: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) must be fully mainstreamed into national and state financial planning by making risk-informed budgeting an essential component of all five-year development and urban master plans.  
  • This involves introducing Floodplain Zoning Regulations as non-negotiable legal tools, classifying high-risk informal settlements as no-development zones, and strategically investing in Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) like restoring urban wetlands and mangroves to function as natural disaster buffers. 
• Developing Hyper-Local, Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (MHEWS: The current early warning model must transition to a hyper-local MHEWS, capable of delivering impact-based forecasts for rapid-onset, localized hazards like flash floods, intense rainfall, and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).  
  • This requires a massive, time-bound deployment of a dense network of IoT-enabled micro-sensors (for river levels, soil moisture, and slope stability) across vulnerable regions like the Himalayas and Western Ghats, ensuring last-mile alerts via the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) directly to individual mobile phones with geo-tagging accuracy. 
• Institutionalizing Private Sector and Community Surge Capacity: Establish a formal mechanism for the private sector's systematic integration into the disaster management cycle, moving beyond mere Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by legally mandating large firms to contribute pre-identified, specialized surge capacity (e.g., heavy machinery, drone fleets, emergency logistics).  
  • Simultaneously, strengthen 'Aapda Sakhi' initiative to train a million women from Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in high-risk zones as certified, First-Responder Psychosocial Support and basic trauma care providers, leveraging existing social capital for faster post-disaster recovery. 
• Strengthening Disaster Health and Psycho-Social Readiness: A dedicated Disaster Health Management System must be established, integrating the National Health Mission (NHM) with NDMA to ensure universal Telemedicine and Mobile Medical Unit capabilities that remain functional immediately post-disaster.  
  • This involves setting up specialized Trauma and Critical Care Centers in vulnerable districts and mandating the training of all healthcare staff, including those in primary health centres, in Psychological First Aid (PFA) to address the immediate and long-term mental health burden of survivors. 
• Enforcing Techno-Legal Compliance for Critical Infrastructure: A stringent Techno-Legal Regime must be implemented to enforce compliance with all disaster safety standards, specifically mandating the seismic retrofitting of all pre-2005 critical government buildings, schools, and hospitals in Seismic Zones III, IV, and V.  
  • This compliance must be overseen by a newly created National Disaster Safety Inspectorate, empowered to issue heavy penalties and "Stop Work" orders for non-compliant infrastructure projects, making safety a legal and financial liability for developers and government agencies. 

Conclusion:

India has made significant strides in disaster risk reduction through technological innovation, community engagement, and institutional strengthening. The multi-dimensional approach, from hyper-local early warning systems to resilient infrastructure, reflects a shift from reactive relief to proactive preparedness. By aligning its strategies with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, India emphasizes education, capacity-building, and risk-informed development planning.