Disaster Management: Act, Institutions and the Sendai Framework

Prerequisites: Disaster Management — overview · Geophysical Phenomena

The Hook: Two Cyclones, Fourteen Years Apart

The Core Concept

Key ideas

The disaster management cycle runs through: prevention and mitigation → preparedness → response → recovery (rehabilitation and reconstruction) — and back to mitigation, ideally “building back better”.

India’s hazard profile

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA):

Add to this urban flooding, heatwaves, lightning, glacial lake outburst floods, industrial accidents (the Bhopal gas tragedy, 1984) and biological disasters (COVID-19).

From relief to risk reduction: the evolution

The Disaster Management Act, 2005 — the institutional pyramid

Other provisions to remember:

• National Disaster Response Fund (Section 46) and National Disaster Mitigation Fund (Section 47); State and district funds in parallel.
• Offences (Sections 51–60), including obstruction, false claims, misappropriation and false warnings (Section 54) — used against panic-causing rumours during COVID-19.
• Separate bodies outside the Act: the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, for major crises.

graph TD
    A["NDMA — chaired by Prime Minister: policies, plans, guidelines"] --> B["NEC — Union Home Secretary: implements national plan"]
    A --> C["SDMA — Chief Minister"]
    C --> D["SEC — Chief Secretary"]
    C --> E["DDMA — District Collector, local body co-chair"]
    E --> F["Local bodies and communities: Aapda Mitra volunteers"]
    B --> G["NDRF — specialised response"]
    A --> H["NIDM — training and research"]

Financing disasters

Notified disasters eligible for SDRF/NDRF: cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloudburst, pest attack, and frost and cold wave. States may use up to 10% of their SDRF for local disasters they notify themselves (for example, lightning or heatwaves in some States).

Early warning and response capacity

Global frameworks

Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030) — adopted in March 2015 at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan; it succeeded the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005–2015). It shifts the focus from managing disasters to managing disaster risk.

India’s global initiatives

• Prime Minister’s Ten-Point Agenda on DRR — announced at the Asian Ministerial Conference on DRR, New Delhi, November 2016.
• Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) — launched by India at the UN Climate Action Summit, New York, September 2019; secretariat in New Delhi.
• A Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group was set up in the G20 for the first time under India’s presidency (2023).

Memory Anchors

Chairs — “PM, HS, CM, CS, DC”: NDMA — Prime Minister · NEC — Home Secretary · SDMA — Chief Minister · SEC — Chief Secretary · DDMA — District Collector. (NCMC — Cabinet Secretary.)

Sendai priorities — “U-G-I-P”: Understand risk · Govern risk · Invest in DRR · Prepare and build back better.

Sendai targets — “4 down, 3 up”: reduce deaths, affected people, economic loss, infrastructure damage; increase strategies, cooperation, early warning.

Notified disasters (12) — “Cyclone, Drought, Earthquake, Fire, Flood, Tsunami; Hail, Landslide, Avalanche, Cloudburst, Pest, Frost-and-cold-wave.”

For Prelims

For Mains

• Dimensions:
  • Institutional: NDMA–NEC–SDMA–DDMA chain; uneven capacity of DDMAs; coordination with line departments.
  • Financial: SDRF/NDRF norms focused on relief; mitigation funds; disaster insurance and risk transfer.
  • Developmental: unplanned urbanisation, encroachment on floodplains and drainage, unsafe construction in seismic zones and hill slopes.
  • Social: vulnerability of the poor, women, children, the elderly and disabled; community-based disaster management.
  • Climate: rising frequency of extreme heat, extreme rainfall and cyclones; link with adaptation (see climate change).
  • Technological: early warning, impact-based forecasting, satellite data, alerts on mobile phones.
• Keywords: disaster risk reduction, resilience, build back better, risk-informed development, impact-based forecasting, last-mile connectivity of warnings, “zero casualty” approach, community-based DRR.
• Value-addition: Odisha cyclone model (1999 vs 2013); NDMP 2016; Sendai’s 4 priorities and 7 targets; PM’s Ten-Point Agenda (2016); CDRI (2019); Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan (2013); 15th Finance Commission’s mitigation funds.

Common Traps

In the News

• July 2024 — landslides in Wayanad district, Kerala, caused heavy loss of life; they renewed attention on landslide risk mapping and early warning in the Western Ghats.
• 2025 — Parliament passed the Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025, which, among other changes, gives statutory backing to the National Crisis Management Committee and provides for urban disaster management authorities and national and State disaster databases → see current affairs.

Practice

Prelims

Mains

Quick Revision

Key Takeaways

Related Topics

• Disaster Management — quick revision
• Disaster Management — practice questions
• Geophysical Phenomena
• Climate Change
• Indian Climate and the Monsoon
• Urbanisation: Problems and Remedies