Introduction: India lost 80 billion dollars by disasters events in last 20 years.
According UN report India among the top five countries that have suffered losses due to disasters. Others are: US, China, Japan and Puerto Rico.
India has been ranked as the fourth worst hit country
Between 1998 to 2017, global economic losses due to disasters was 2.9 trillion dollars. And 1.3 million people lost their lives and 4.4 billion people were Injured. Many Rendered homless,displaced or were in need of emergency assistance. A total of 563 earthquake, including those related to tsunamis, accounted for 56% of the total death 7,47,234 people.
The report was compiled by UN office for disaster risk reduction (UNISDR)which highlights impact of extreme weather events on global economy. The released ahead of international day for disaster reduction, observed every year on October 13.
The report stated climate change is increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events. The economic losses from extreme weather events are unsustainable and puts major brake on eradicating poverty in hazard exposed parts of the world.
Disasters will continue to be major impediments to sustainable development so long as economic incentive to build and develop hazard-prone locations outweigh perceived disaster risks.
UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)
UN office for disaster risk reduction was established in 1999 as dedicated secretariat to facilitate implementation of international for disaster reduction (ISDR). It is an organizational unit of UN secretariat and is led by the UN special representative of the secretary-general for disaster risk reduction (SRSG). It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is mandated by United Nation General Assembly resolution (56/195) to serve as focal point in United Nation system for coordination of disaster reduction and to ensure synergies among disaster reduction activities of United Nations system and regional organizations and activities in socio-economic and humanitarian fields.
What measure has India taken to handle disaster losses?
India has been trying to being pro-active, drastic natural disasters level are getting higher due to constant change in climate. Union government and state governments has been working together, however the level of approach is not up to the level of disasters events, government brought new several types of technologies for better forecasting system management in India.
Conclusion
Due to climate change the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, there should be integrated disaster risk reduction. Moreover, investment decisions is the most cost-effective way to reduce these risks’ as investing in disaster risk reduction is therefore a pre-condition for developing sustainable infrastructure, and technologies to tackle the climate change. Government should focus and bring new high technology for pro-active approach. Better frame work is needed to be adopted. Recruitment of More officers in NDRF is aslo needed. Government should make more policies to handle such disasters events. There is a need to do much better job of capturing economic loss data. If country have a full understanding of what works when it comes to reducing economic losses, saving lives and livelihood, and managing disaster risk, there would be better implementation as well.
