{"id":3965,"date":"2026-08-31T05:55:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T05:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/?p=3965"},"modified":"2026-09-01T06:03:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:03:16","slug":"himalayan-disaster-preparedness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/himalayan-disaster-preparedness\/","title":{"rendered":"HIMALAYAN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><\/h2>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<blockquote><p><b>SYLLABUS: Disaster preparedness<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>General Studies \u2013 : III\u00a0 <\/b><b>Disaster and Disaster Management.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><b>IN NEWS:<\/b> <b>Nepal disaster, a grim reminder to rethink preparedness<\/b><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><br \/>\n<\/b><b>QUESTION: <\/b><b>Recent Himalayan disasters have exposed vulnerabilities in India\u2019s preparedness for cascading and multi-hazard events. Examine the major gaps in India\u2019s Himalayan disaster management framework and suggest measures to build a more anticipatory and climate-resilient system. (15 marks)<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><b>ANSWER: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Himalayas are a <\/span><b>young, tectonically active and geomorphologically fragile mountain system<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, comprising the Greater, Lesser and Shiwalik Himalayas. Their steep slopes, active faults, glaciers and fragile lithology make them susceptible to <\/span><b>earthquakes, landslides, GLOFs, flash floods and avalanches<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Climate change and infrastructure expansion are increasingly converting these individual hazards into <\/span><b>cascading disasters<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Why is Himalayan disaster risk becoming cascading?<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Geographical fragility:<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Greater Himalayas contain extensive glaciers and glacial lakes, while the Lesser Himalayas have unstable slopes and weaker rock formations. The Shiwaliks, with relatively unconsolidated sediments, can transmit large volumes of debris and floodwater towards the plains.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Climate-induced amplification:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Glacier retreat, permafrost degradation, glacial-lake expansion and extreme precipitation are increasing the probability of <\/span><b>GLOFs, ice-rock avalanches, landslides and flash floods<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Infrastructure-induced vulnerability:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Roads, tunnels, hydropower projects and urban expansion in narrow valleys can involve <\/span><b>blasting, slope cutting, excavation and muck dumping<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, disturbing natural drainage and slope stability. Such interventions may act as <\/span><b>risk multipliers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, particularly when cumulative impacts are ignored.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, an earthquake, extreme rainfall or glacier\/rock avalanche can initiate a chain of <\/span><b>slope failure \u2192 river blockage \u2192 sudden flood \u2192 debris flow \u2192 damage to infrastructure and settlements<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Existing policy and institutional framework<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has a substantial disaster-risk architecture:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Disaster Management Act, 2005:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Provides the institutional framework through NDMA, SDMAs, DDMAs and NDRF.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Aligns India&#8217;s disaster management approach with the <\/span><b>Sendai Framework<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, emphasising prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Dam Safety Act, 2021:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Provides a statutory framework for surveillance, inspection and safety of specified dams.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>National GLOF Risk Mitigation Project:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Focuses on GLOF hazard assessment, monitoring, early warning, mitigation and community preparedness in vulnerable Himalayan States.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>National Landslide Risk Management Strategy, 2019:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Provides a framework for landslide hazard mapping, vulnerability assessment, early warning, awareness and capacity building.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Promotes scientific understanding and conservation of the Himalayan ecosystem.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>SACHET and Common Alerting Protocol:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Provide a platform for disseminating geo-targeted disaster warnings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>National Centre for Seismology, IMD, CWC, GSI and ISRO:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Together provide monitoring, forecasting, hazard mapping and geospatial decision support.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Major gaps in the existing framework<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Fragmented rather than cascading-risk management:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Institutional responsibilities remain largely <\/span><b>hazard-specific<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, whereas Himalayan disasters increasingly involve interactions between geological, hydrological and cryospheric processes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Project-level rather than landscape-level assessment:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EIA and clearances can focus on individual projects, while the cumulative consequences of multiple <\/span><b>dams, tunnels, roads and settlements within a river basin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> may remain inadequately assessed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Development\u2013ecology mismatch:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Infrastructure planning does not always sufficiently integrate <\/span><b>carrying capacity, seismic vulnerability, slope stability, GLOF risk and future climate scenarios<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Science-to-action gap:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India&#8217;s forecasting capabilities have improved, but the effectiveness of an early warning ultimately depends upon <\/span><b>last-mile communication, evacuation capacity and community preparedness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Existing infrastructure can become secondary hazards:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Damage to dams, bridges, roads and tunnels can amplify the consequences of the original natural hazard, requiring <\/span><b>critical-infrastructure risk assessment and emergency action planning<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Transboundary governance:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Himalayan cryosphere and river systems transcend political boundaries. Weak real-time sharing of <\/span><b>glacial, meteorological and hydrological information<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can increase downstream vulnerability.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Social vulnerability:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women, children, elderly persons, persons with disabilities and remote mountain communities may face greater difficulties in evacuation, communication, relief access and post-disaster recovery. Disaster planning therefore needs a <\/span><b>gender- and vulnerability-responsive approach<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Way Forward: From disaster response to anticipatory resilience<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Risk-informed infrastructure planning:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Move from isolated project appraisal towards <\/span><b>cumulative, basin-wide and landscape-level assessment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Major infrastructure should incorporate seismic, landslide, GLOF, flood and climate-risk assessments from the design stage.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Strengthen Himalayan carrying-capacity assessment:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assess the combined pressure of <\/span><b>hydropower, roads, tourism, settlements and ecological degradation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before permitting additional infrastructure in vulnerable valleys.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Adopt a mitigation hierarchy:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where risks are excessive, prioritise <\/span><b>avoidance and redesign<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, followed by engineering mitigation and, where necessary, relocation. Run-of-river and pumped-storage options can be considered where they reduce risks associated with large reservoirs, subject to site-specific ecological and geological assessment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Build a genuinely multi-hazard early-warning system:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Integrate IMD, CWC, GSI, ISRO, NCS and State agencies through a common risk-information architecture. Expand <\/span><b>remote sensing, InSAR, automatic weather stations, hydrological sensors, glacier monitoring and AI-based forecasting<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Close the last-mile gap:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Convert warnings into action through <\/span><b>village-level hazard maps, evacuation routes, shelters, mock drills, trained local volunteers and multilingual alerts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Disaster plans should specifically identify vulnerable groups and their evacuation and relief requirements.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Climate-resilient critical infrastructure:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regularly audit existing dams, tunnels, roads and bridges for <\/span><b>compound hazards<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, strengthen drainage and slope stabilisation, and ensure effective <\/span><b>Emergency Action Plans and dam-break preparedness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Strengthen transboundary cooperation:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Develop mechanisms with Nepal, Bhutan and China for real-time sharing of <\/span><b>river discharge, rainfall, seismic, glacier and GLOF information<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, particularly for shared river basins.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Himalayan challenge is not merely to predict an earthquake, GLOF or landslide, but to <\/span><b>prevent one hazard from cascading into a larger disaster<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. India must therefore move from <\/span><b>hazard-specific and project-centric management towards cumulative, basin-level and anticipatory risk governance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Development in the Himalayas should follow the principle of <\/span><b>risk-informed development<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, balancing infrastructure needs with ecological carrying capacity, climate resilience and the safety of vulnerable communities.<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<blockquote><p><b>PYQ REFERENCE UPSC 2020<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q. Discuss the recent measures initiated in disaster management by the Government of India departing from the earlier reactive approach<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><b>SOURCE: <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_international\/issues\/201987\/OPS\/GHDGEE5I1.1+GBGGFEMEF.1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu e-paper &#8211; Nepal\u2019s agony, the Himalayan warning to India<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SYLLABUS: Disaster preparedness General Studies \u2013 : III\u00a0 Disaster and Disaster Management. IN NEWS: Nepal disaster, a grim reminder to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,68,39,46,22,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-daily-current-affairs","category-daws","category-disaster-management","category-environment","category-gs-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3967,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3965\/revisions\/3967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}