NATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE FORCE STRENGTH & WEAKNESSES AND IT’S SYNERGY WITH THE ARMED FORCES A Dissertation submitted to the Panjab University, Chandigarh for the award of Master of Philosophy in Social Sciences, in Partial Fulfillment of the requirement for the Advanced Professional Programme in Public Administration (APPPA) By Brigadier Rajesh Srivastava, SM (Roll Number 4433) Under the guidance of Prof V K Mishra 44rd ADVANCED PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMME IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (2018-19) INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION NEW DELHI ii CERTIFICATE I have the pleasure to certify that Brigadier Rajesh Srivastava, SM has pursued his research work and prepared the present dissertation titled “National Disaster Response Force: Strength & Weaknesses And its Synergy with the Armed Forces” under my guidance and supervision. The dissertation is the result of his own research and to the best of my knowledge, no part of it has earlier comprised any other monograph, dissertation or book. This is being submitted to the Panjab University, Chandigarh, for the purpose of Master of Philosophy in Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Advanced Professional Programme in Public Administration of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi. I recommend that the dissertation of Brigadier Rajesh Srivastava, SM is worthy of the award of M.Phil degree of Panjab University, Chandigarh. (Prof VK Sharma) Indian Institute of Public Administration I.P. Estate, Ring Road, New Delhi-110002 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to place on record my sincere gratitude to Director IIPA for giving me this opportunity to research and write this dissertation, which has immensely increased my awareness about the subject. I am indebted to Prof VK Sharma for support and valuable guidance at every stage of my dissertation work. He was the inspiration behind my taking up a subject of Disaster Management for my dissertation. My sincere thanks to the IIPA Library for making the research material available to me at a very short notice. I am also grateful to the staff of APPPA Office for their positive and timely administrative support. March 2019 Brigadier Rajesh Srivastava Roll Number :4433 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................ viii Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 General ............................................................................................................................ 1 Statement of the Problem ................................................................................................ 3 Aim and Objectives of the Research ............................................................................... 3 Rationale and Justification .............................................................................................. 4 Research Questions ......................................................................................................... 4 Limitations, Delimitations and Assumptions .................................................................. 5 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 5 Literature Review ............................................................................................................ 5 Research Design .............................................................................................................. 7 Research Methods and Data Sources .............................................................................. 7 Chapterisation Scheme .................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 2: DISASTERS AND THE RISK PROFILE OF INDIA .............................. 10 General .......................................................................................................................... 10 What are Disasters? ....................................................................................................... 10 Types of Disasters ......................................................................................................... 12 Vulnerability of India to Disasters ................................................................................ 13 India’s Disaster Risk Profile ......................................................................................... 15 Man Made Disasters ...................................................................................................... 24 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 3: INDIA’S DISASTER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND ROLE OF NATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE FORCE ............................................................... 27 General .......................................................................................................................... 27 Disaster Management Act, 2005 and National Disaster Management Policy 2009 ..... 27 National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) 2016 ..................................................... 29 Role and Function of NDMA ........................................................................................ 31 v Responsibility of National Emergency Council (NEC) ................................................ 33 Response Mechanism during Disasters ......................................................................... 33 NDRF: Role and Organisation ...................................................................................... 36 Critical Appraisal of NDRF .......................................................................................... 41 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 46 CHAPTER 4: CASE STUDY: DISASTER RESPONSE DURING KERALA FLOODS IN AUG 2018 .................................................................................................................... 47 General .......................................................................................................................... 47 How the Situation Unfolded .......................................................................................... 47 Causes of the Disaster ................................................................................................... 53 Removing Vulnerability to Disaster .............................................................................. 55 Analysis of Emergency Response ................................................................................. 57 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 59 CHAPTER 5: DISASTER RESPONSE SYSTEM OF DEVELOPED COUNTRY: JAPAN .............................................................................................................................. 61 General .......................................................................................................................... 61 Disaster Management System of Japan ......................................................................... 62 Disaster Response Mechanism ...................................................................................... 65 Disaster Response Forces .............................................................................................. 68 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 69 CHAPTER 6: CAPABILITIES OF ARMED FORCES TO SUPPLEMENT NDRF ...... 70 General .......................................................................................................................... 70 Resources and Capability of Army ............................................................................... 70 Armed Forces Response during Kerala Floods ............................................................. 75 Armed Forces and NDRF in Disaster Management...................................................... 77 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 79 CHAPTER 7: SYNERGY IN RESPONSE AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................... 81 General .......................................................................................................................... 81 Adequacy of Our Disaster Emergency Response System ............................................. 82 Strength and Inadequacies of NDRF ............................................................................. 83 Critical Analysis of NDRF and its Synergy with the Armed Forces ............................ 89 vi Recommendations ......................................................................................................... 90 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 93 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 94 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Top 10 Countries by Number of People Affected (2018) ............................ 13 Figure 2 : People