INDEX

Title Page No.

1. What is disaster 1
2. Natural v/s Man made disaster 2
3. Disaster mitigation : Introduction 3
4. Disaster Management Cycle 5
5. Disasters’ Management techniques 6
6. Disasters faced in Sikkim 11
7. Conclusion 14
8. Bibliography 15
 Origin to the French word “Desastre”

Disaster
The term refers to ‘Bad or Evil star’.

An undesirable occurrence resulting from forces that are largely outside human
control, strikes quickly with little or no warning, which causes or threatens serious
disruption of life and property including death and injury to a large number of people,
and requires therefore, mobilisation of efforts in excess of that which are normally
provided by statutory emergency services.
 Disasters are divided into 2 basic groups: natural and man-made.

Among the natural disasters are earthquakes, Among the man-made disasters are
volcanoes, hurricanes, floods, and fires. war,pollution , nuclear explosions,
Every year approximately 400 natural hazardous materials exposures,
disasters occur in India. explosions and transportation accidents.
DISASTER MITIGATION
An all-hazards approach to disaster management considers all known hazards and their
natural and anthropogenic potential risks and impacts, with the intention of ensuring
that measures taken to mitigate one type of risk do not increase vulnerability to other
types of risks.

Proactive disaster mitigation measures are generally more effective than reactive
measures in eliminating or reducing the impacts,

but not all disasters are reasonably foreseeable, and when an unforeseen disaster occurs,
mitigation is necessarily after the fact.
Planning processes may include:

● Stakeholder agreement on actions for

risk reduction
● Assessment of relative risk and
vulnerability
● Building partnerships among
stakeholders
● Increasing awareness of hazards,
vulnerabilities and risk
● Establishing priorities
● Aligning risk reduction and mitigation
strategies with other objectives
 Disaster Management Cycle
The three key stages of activities that are taken up within disaster risk management are:

1.Before a disaster (pre-disaster). Activities taken to reduce human and property losses caused by
a potential hazard. For example carrying out awareness campaigns, strengthening the existing weak
structures, preparation of the disaster management plans at household and community level etc.
Such risk reduction measures taken under this stage are termed as mitigation and preparedness
activities.

2.During a disaster (disaster occurrence). Initiatives taken to ensure that the needs and provisions
of victims are met and suffering is minimized. Activities taken under this stage are called emergency
response activities.

3. After a disaster (post-disaster) Initiatives taken in response to a disaster with a purpose to

achieve early recovery and rehabilitation of affected communities, immediately after a disaster strikes.
These are called response and recovery activities.
 Disasters and
their management
techniques
• Identification of flood prone areas - A rational planning for flood
management involves identification the flood prone areas and
frequency and magnitude of flooding in these areas.
Flood
• Flood forecasting- Normally there is a reasonable timely warning by
alerting people and moving them to safer area well in time.

Some precautionary measures-

➢ When you are moving to a shelter, move your valuable articles to safer
elevated places so that they are not destroyed by flood water.
➢ Keep yourself alert and updated to weather & flood forecasting information.
➢ Build houses away from flood prone area.
➢ Clear the house and dwellings of debris.
➢ Do not touch any loose electric wire to avoid electrocution.
● Causes - Drought occurs due to shortage of rainfall. As per
Meteorological Department if rainfall is deficient by more than 10% of
DROUGHT
the annual average rainfall, the condition is said to be that of drought.
● Effects- Drought has severe effects on agriculture. To start with
drought affects mostly rainfed crops and subsequently the irrigated
crops. The herdsman, landless labourers, subsistence farmers, women,
and farm animals are most affected.

● Management -
➢ A regular monitoring of rainfall, water availability in reservoirs,
lakes and rivers as well as in comparison it with the demand.
➢ Economizing water consumption, by increasing water use
efficiency, reducing wastage, reusing the wastewater for inferior
uses.
 EARTHQUAKE
● Causes- Earthquakes are natural ways of releasing energy by
earth. An earthquake occurs in certain pockets of the earth
which has geological faults. Such areas have already been
identified.
● Effects-Household articles including electronics & furniture
get damaged. Human and livestock deaths or serious injuries
from collapsing of building are common followed by
outbreak of epidemics like cholera, diarrhoea, and infectious
diseases.
● Management + Precautionary measures-
➢ Move out in the open
➢ Keep calm, do not rush and panic, never use lift, keep away
from windows, mirrors and furniture
➢ If you are under a building and unable to move, cover your
head and body with your arms, pillows, blankets to protect
yourself from falling objects
➢ Check for structural damage and clear the blockage
➢ Check for injuries. Apply first aid. Help others
And many more disasters , which have common mitigation
measures such as -

➢ Keep away from buildings, old & tall ones, electric poles, wires & walls.
➢ Keep matches away from children.
➢ Obey fire safety rules and remember the evacuation route in case of fire.
➢ Keep a fire extinguisher in the house and learn how to use it.
➢ Look on either side of the road before crossing.
➢ Drive only if you possess a proper driving license.
➢ Do not lean out of a moving train.
➢ Do not stop the train on a bridge or tunnel where evacuation is not possible.
➢ Pay attention to the flight crew safety demonstration.
➢ Remember, smoke rises. So try to stay down if there is smoke in the cabin.
DISASTERS FACED IN SIKKIM
 Landslides’ mitigation strategy mainly consists of:
● Landslide hazard susceptibility zonation studies are greatly aided by the modern techniques
involving remote sensing, geographical information system (GIS) and global positioning
systems (GPS) etc.
● Mapping, inventorying, analysis and generation of required details of landslide zones can be
done by these tools, collectively understood as tools of geoinformatics to a great extent.
● These in turn prove to be quite helpful in various phases of disaster mitigation and
management.
Pre-disaster reduction phase
Prevention: This phase encompasses measures which are adopted in advance and which seek to
prevent it occurring or to reduce its severity.

Mitigation: Actions taken to reduce the effects of a disaster in a community

Preparedness: Comprises activities designed to minimize loss of life and damage by temporary
removal of people from a threatened location, etc.

Post disaster reduction phase

Response:
-The initial response is normally provided by the statutory emergency services of a local
authority.
-The basic objectives of the response will be to save life, prevent escalation of the event, relieve
suffering by meeting the basic needs such as shelter, food, water and medical care and the
protection of property.
 CONCLUSION
Disasters are natural hazard events in which a natural occurrence or a combination
of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, landslide, floods, volcanic eruptions,
tsunamis etc., can cause severe losses of lives and damages to the property.
Natural disasters have major direct and indirect economic and socio-economic effects
in addition to the physical destruction that may happen.
Artificial triggering agents such as nuclear bombs and forest fires aggravate the
situation.
Modern day approach and paradigm of disaster management can greatly be aided by
advanced geoinformatics tools like remote sensing, GIS and GPS in inventorying,
analyzing and suitable spatial zonation of susceptible areas.
These ultimately shall facilitate mitigation efforts required for disaster management.
Bibliography
>Source of pictures attached-
- www.pinterest.com
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/

>Source for sikkim disaster management information

- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274705274

>Source for disaster management technique for eathquake , flood , and drought.-
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood
- https://www.who.int/health-topics/drought#:~:text=Drought%20is%20a%20prolonged%20dry,economies%2C%20
energy%20and%20the%20environment.
- https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
 THANK YOU
Name of student - Divyanshi Gupta
Class - 11
Section - C
Subject- Geography
Topic - Disaster Management and Mitigation
Total pages- 18

Teacher’s signature & remarks _________________