1 2 3 INTRODUCTIN With the 73rd and 74th amendment to the constitution of India in 2005 the Disaster Management Act was enacted under the concurrence list of the constitution of India . This act comprises 79 sections and 11 chapters.This act provides for the prerequisite institutional mechanism for monitoring and implementation of plans. It ensures measures by various wings of the Government for the prevention and mitigation of disasters. With the enactment of disaster management act 2005 ,National policy on Disaster Management was framed in 2005. All State Governments have been directed to implement the National policy on Disaster Management to safeguard the safety of people, property and ensure developmental planning giving importance to the pre disaster preparedness. Preparedness rather than post – crisis management, co-ordinated participatory approach, technology upgradation and deployment, information as a tool for disaster management, recognition of linkages between disasters and development, connecting specific programmes for management of natural disasters, forecasting and warning using latest technology, are some of the important features of disaster management. Natural disasters are flood, cyclone, landslide, hailstorm, earthquake and Tsunami.In Tripura it is observed from the records of last 50 years, mostly widespread flood affected the people of Tripura in different years. In the years 1983, 1993, 1994, 2003, 2004, the people of Tripura experienced the divastating flood. In some years, cyclone hailstorm, landslide, and earthquake also, damaged lives and property. Recently cyclone and thunderstorm are playing a disastrous role for the loss of life and property in Tripura. Three persons died of thunderstorm in the months of may and June 2012 under Gomati District. Necessary steps have been taken to provide financial help to the families of the victims. Flood is the most common and widespread natural calamity in Tripura . Literally Tripura stands for Twi which means water and Para which implies land. Tripura thus stands for land with water. Average rainfall is over 250cms annually in Tripura. This state is one of the highly flood prone States in our country. The perennial rainfall is concentrated in few months as shown in the graph and more than thousand hectares of land is prone to flood and causing damage to houses, industries, public utilities, agricultural crops, cattle& animals and property resulting in huge economic losses, apart from loss of lives. Though it is not possible to control the flood totally, by adopting suitable structural and non-structural measures the flood damages can be minimized. Average annual rainfall in the district is about 2090 mm. Rain is brought by the South -West Monsoon, which normally comes in the month of May with maximum intensity of rainfall during June-July. The Gomati is the major river in Gomati District. This river originates from hill ranges of this state and flows down to Bangladesh after traversing through narrow valleys. In addition to that, there are numerous Cherras which pour water into the river. The River is flashy and meandering in nature. 70% of the catchments lies in hills and as such bed slopes are very steep and the velocity of flood discharges is also high. Traditional Jhum cultivation, extensive deforestation aggravates the flood intensity/ damages. Unusual erosion of banks also creates tremendous problems to protect the district and sub- divisional towns, villages and other permanent structures and borderlands on the riverbanks. As, the river flows through narrow valleys, there is also little scope to construct embankments on both the banks leaving away adequate waterway. There is also little scope for taking up flood control reservoir project due to constraints in shifting & rehabilitation of people - mostly tribal. Gomati District, along with the other part of the state of Tripura faced severe Flood in the year 1983, 1993 and 2004. 4 MULTI - HAZARD DISASTER MANAGEMENT PLAN 2017 - 18 WHY IS IT The purpose of preparing District Disaster Management Action Plan (DDMAP) is – a) To ascertain the status of existing resources and facilities available with the various agencies involved in the management of disaster in the District. b) Assess their adequacies and short falls if any in providing a multi- disaster response. c) Suggest institutional strengthening, technology support, up gradation of information system and data management for improving the quality of administrative responses to disaster at the district level and finally, d) To evolve DDMAP as an effective managerial tool. MAIN OBJECTIVE OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT a. Promoting a culture of prevention, preparedness and resilience at all levels through knowledge, innovation and education. b. Encouraging mitigation measures based on technology, tradition wisdom and environmental sustainability. c. Mainstreaming disaster management into the developmental planning precess. d. Establishing institutional and technolegal frameworks to create and enabling regulatory environment and a compliance regime. e. Ensuring efficient mechanism for identification, assessment and monitoring of disaster risks. f. Ensuring efficient response and relief g. Undertaking reconstruction as an opportunity to build disaster resilient structure. h. Promoting a productive and pro active partnership with the media for disaster management. i. Ensuring co ordination among various departments and relief agencies related to disaster. j) Capacity building to reduce risks. k) Wide spread awarness campaign with training. 5 DISTRICT DISASTER MANAGEMENT PLAN 2017 – 2018 A formal planning for managing disaster is therefore necessary to ensure minimum lose of life and property . This can be achieved only through planned management of disaster :- In the absence of a defined plan, response to a disaster would be arbitrary leading to over emphasis of some actions or other actions, which would be critical. Moreover, due to absence of a defined response structure and allocations of responsibilities, there would be mismanagement of resources and overlap of actions among various agencies, which may exacerbate the situation there by compounding the disaster effect. District Disaster Management Plan is useful at pre-disaster stage, when warnings could be issued, for example, that flood is emminent. The plan again serves as guide to officials at the critical time and precious time is saved which might otherwise be lost in consultations with senior officers and getting formal approval from authorities. As, it is, neither economical nor practicable to protect every item and the entire population against calamitous situations, response plans are formulated for relief, rehabilitation and restoration by separate agencies. District Disaster Management plan is an operational module for the district administration, how to mitigate the different types of disaster effectively with the locally available resources and personnel and to provide the distressed people with immediate relief. It also ensures a checklist for all the stakeholders for an action oriented response structure and to study their preparedness level. 6 Diagram of the DDMP (DISTRICT DISASTER MANGEMENT PLAN) DEVELOPMENTAL PLANNING PROCESS DISTRCT DISASTER MANAGEMENT PLAN PRE DISASTER PHASE PREVENTION MITIGATION PREPAREDNESS POST DISASTER DISASTE R PHASE RESPONSE RELIEF RECOVERY 7 AT A GLANCE GOMATI DISTRICT. Particulars Remarks 1 Location East Longitude-91- 18” to 91 -59” North Latitude- 22 - 56” to 23 -45” 2 Area of the district 2966 sq K.M 3 Number of sub-division 03 Nos. 4 08 Nos Number of blocks 5 134 Nos. Revenue Moujas 6 Municipal Corporation - 7 Municipal Council 01 No. 8 Nagar Panchayet 01 No. 9 53 Nos. Gram Panchayet 10 103 Nos. ADC Village Population 4,76,675 Nos. 11. (As per ROR) 12. Total School J.B :- 265, SB :- 166, High:- 73, H.S(+2)=36 13. Police Station 08 Nos. 14. Fire Station 05 Nos. 15. Hospital 06 Nos. Disasters: Negative and Positive Aspects Aspects Negative Aspects Positive Aspects D Damage Development I Interruption Innovation S Severe Sharing A Antagonistic Awareness S Scourge Self-sufficiency T Traumatic Transformation E Emergency Education R Risk Resilience Goals of Disaster Management Plan • Minimize losses to lives and infrastructure. • Reduce the risks associated with disasters through timely measures, short-term and long-term policies. • Provide required assistance to communities during and after the disasters. • Ensure rapid and sustained recovery and rehabilitation after the occurrence of disasters. Pre-disaster a) Preparation of plan and preparatory steps. ( Necessary initiave is taken to arrange for District level Sub-Division level and Block level yearly plan for Disaster Management.Various line Departments i.e. P.W.D , A.R.D.D , Agriculture ,Fishery , Education , Fire service , Forest , S.P ( police ) , T.S.R , Assam Rifles, have submitted plan ( DM for the year 2017) b) Identification of catchments area and familiarity roads, alternative roads and bridges. c) Preparation of plan for shifting people d) Training on disaster control ( District Administration has taken steps to organise awarness campign with effective mock drill throughout the district every month for the year 2017 – 13) e) Selection of shelter house (Which have already been done) f) District level / Sub Division level / Block level Control rooms are operational ( steps have also been taken to open control room in other District level offices for maintaining co ordination ) g) Sending of current situation