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Disaster management: quick recap

Disaster management · Quick recap · Fact-checked on · how we check

Written with AI from the sources listed at the bottom of this page, then fact-checked by a separate AI.

Both parts in one sitting: hazard, vulnerability and risk; India's hazard profile; the disaster management cycle; the 2005 Act and its three tiers; the 2025 amendment; response and mitigation funds; the NDRF and warning agencies; Hyogo, Sendai and the CDRI.

This chapter was taught in two parts that answer one question: how does India stop a hazard from turning into a disaster? Part 1 set out the ideas and the law. Disaster risk depends on the hazard, on the vulnerability of the people exposed to it and on their capacity to cope, and the Disaster Management Act, 2005 defines a disaster as an event, natural or man-made, that goes beyond the coping capacity of the affected community. Part 2 explained the money, the responders, the warnings and the global frameworks that make the law work. Read together, the parts trace one change: from relief after the event to risk reduction before it.

Part 1 began with India's exposure: earthquakes in the Himalaya and the North-East, floods in the Ganga and Brahmaputra plains, cyclones mostly on the east coast, the 2004 tsunami, drought in the rainfed interior, landslides, heat waves and urban floods. It then traced the disaster management cycle of prevention, mitigation and preparedness, response, and recovery, and the shift announced by the National Policy of 2009. The shocks of 1999, 2001 and 2004 led to the Act, which created three tiers: the NDMA under the Prime Minister with the National Executive Committee under the Union Home Secretary; the SDMA under the Chief Minister with the State Executive Committee under the Chief Secretary; and the DDMA under the Collector, with an elected local representative as co-chairperson. NIDM, nodal ministries such as Agriculture for drought, the penalties of Chapter X and the 2025 amendment, with its urban authorities, databases and statutory crisis committees, completed the picture.

Part 2 followed the money and the people. The National Disaster Response Fund and the State Disaster Response Funds pay for relief, with the Centre meeting 75 per cent of the state funds (90 per cent for north-eastern and Himalayan states) and twelve notified disasters eligible. The Fifteenth Finance Commission added a 20 per cent mitigation window to the 80 per cent response window. The National Disaster Response Force, raised in 2006 from the central armed police forces, leads specialist rescue at home and abroad, backed by state forces and community volunteers. Warnings come from IMD for cyclones and heat, INCOIS for tsunamis, the Central Water Commission for floods and the Geological Survey of India for landslides, while earthquakes can be recorded but not predicted.

Finally, Part 2 placed India in the global story: the International Decade of the 1990s, the Yokohama Strategy of 1994, the Hyogo Framework for 2005–2015 and the Sendai Framework for 2015–2030, which is voluntary and sets seven targets and four priorities, the last of them build back better. India aligned its national plan with Sendai, hosted the Asian ministerial conference in 2016, created the G20 working group on disaster risk reduction in 2023 and launched the CDRI in 2019. The lesson of the whole chapter is simple: warnings, safer buildings and trained people save more lives than relief can.

Disaster management at a glance
ItemKey fact
Legal definitionSection 2(d): natural or man-made, beyond the coping capacity of the community
NDMA / NECPrime Minister / Union Home Secretary
SDMA / SECChief Minister / Chief Secretary
DDMACollector; elected local representative as co-chairperson
FundsNDRF (Section 46), SDRF (Section 48); Centre 75% or 90% of SDRF
Fifteenth Finance CommissionResponse 80% (40 relief, 30 recovery, 10 preparedness), mitigation 20%
Response forceNDRF, Section 44, raised 2006 from central armed police forces
Tsunami warningINCOIS, Hyderabad (2007)
Sendai Framework2015–2030, voluntary, seven targets, four priorities
CDRILaunched September 2019, secretariat in New Delhi

Exam traps

Recap

Practice questions

Q1. Under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the District Disaster Management Authority is chaired by:

  1. The local Member of Parliament
  2. The Collector, District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner
  3. The Superintendent of Police
  4. The chairperson of the zila parishad
Show answer

Answer: B. The Collector, District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner

Section 25 makes the Collector, District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner the chairperson. The local MP has no such role, the Superintendent of Police can be a member but not the chair, and an elected representative of the local authority, such as the zila parishad chairperson, serves as co-chairperson rather than chairperson.

Q2. Consider the following statements:
1. The Union Home Secretary chairs the National Executive Committee.
2. The Union Home Minister chairs the National Disaster Management Authority.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. 1 only
  2. 2 only
  3. Both 1 and 2
  4. Neither 1 nor 2
Show answer

Answer: A. 1 only

Only statement 1 is correct. The NDMA is chaired by the Prime Minister under Section 3, not by the Home Minister. So '2 only' and 'Both' wrongly accept statement 2, and 'Neither' wrongly rejects the correct statement about the NEC.

Q3. Which one of the following is a mitigation measure rather than a response measure?

  1. Search and rescue after a building collapse
  2. Distributing food in relief camps
  3. Enforcing earthquake-resistant building codes
  4. Evacuating people as a cyclone makes landfall
Show answer

Answer: C. Enforcing earthquake-resistant building codes

Building codes reduce the impact of a future earthquake and are done before the event, which is mitigation. Search and rescue, food distribution in camps and evacuation as a storm hits are all response activities carried out during or just after a disaster.

Q4. In the State Disaster Response Fund, the Union government's share for a north-eastern or Himalayan state is:

  1. 50 per cent
  2. 75 per cent
  3. 90 per cent
  4. 100 per cent
Show answer

Answer: C. 90 per cent

For north-eastern and Himalayan states the Centre pays 90 per cent and the state 10 per cent. Seventy-five per cent is the share for other states, fifty per cent is not used, and the Centre never meets the whole fund.

Q5. Match the hazard with the agency that warns about or monitors it:
A. Tsunami — 1. Central Water Commission
B. River floods — 2. Geological Survey of India
C. Landslides — 3. INCOIS
D. Cyclones — 4. India Meteorological Department
Select the correct code:

  1. A-3, B-1, C-2, D-4
  2. A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3
  3. A-3, B-2, C-1, D-4
  4. A-1, B-3, C-2, D-4
Show answer

Answer: A. A-3, B-1, C-2, D-4

INCOIS warns of tsunamis, the CWC forecasts river floods, the GSI is nodal for landslides and IMD forecasts cyclones. The second code swaps IMD and INCOIS, the third swaps the CWC and GSI, and the fourth gives tsunamis to the CWC and floods to INCOIS.

Q6. Which of the following is NOT one of the four priorities for action of the Sendai Framework?

  1. Understanding disaster risk
  2. Strengthening disaster risk governance
  3. Creating a binding global disaster fund with fixed contributions
  4. Enhancing preparedness and building back better
Show answer

Answer: C. Creating a binding global disaster fund with fixed contributions

Sendai is voluntary and creates no binding fund with fixed contributions. The other three are its priorities; the one left out of the options is investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience.

Q7. Consider the following statements:
1. Gujarat passed a state disaster management law before the central Act of 2005.
2. The Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 allows Urban Disaster Management Authorities for state capitals and cities with municipal corporations.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. 1 only
  2. 2 only
  3. Both 1 and 2
  4. Neither 1 nor 2
Show answer

Answer: C. Both 1 and 2

Both are correct: Gujarat's law came in 2003 after the 2001 earthquake, and the 2025 amendment provides for urban authorities headed by the municipal commissioner. '1 only' and '2 only' each drop a correct statement, and 'Neither' rejects both.

Q8. The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure was launched at:

  1. The UN Climate Action Summit, New York, 2019
  2. COP21, Paris, 2015
  3. The third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Sendai, 2015
  4. COP26, Glasgow, 2021
Show answer

Answer: A. The UN Climate Action Summit, New York, 2019

The CDRI was launched in New York in September 2019. Paris 2015 saw the launch of the International Solar Alliance, Sendai 2015 adopted the Sendai Framework, and at Glasgow in 2021 the CDRI launched its island-states initiative, IRIS, not the coalition itself.

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