Taking lessons from the disaster of 2013, the State disaster management department is imparting training 25 people in every Nyaya Panchayat of the State. A total of 16300 villagers in 652 Nyaya Panchayats of the state have been trained till date in disaster -related activities. This year the disaster mitigation and management centre has planned another ten- day programme on search and rescue operations.
The secretary disaster, Amit Singh Negi said that many lessons were learned from the disaster of 2013. He said that the Government machinery is now much more equipped to deal with disaster. Citing an example, Negi said that Drones are being provided at Tehsil level to deal with disaster. He added that changes in the disaster act would be made to make the contractors and the work executing agencies more accountable. Negi said that the disaster management is not work of a one department but every department should be involved in it.
Executive Director, Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre, Piyush Rautela informed that many villages in the state have become unsafe due to repeated disasters and comprehensive geological survey of 73 very sensitive villages out of earmarked 395 villages has been done. He added that survey of remaining villages is under progress. Rautela said that the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) has also imparted a two day search and rescue training to 2956 villagers and 1754 Village Watchmen.He informed that five member search and rescue teams are place at 18 sensitive places on the Char Dham Yatra route and at Bageshwar and Pithoragarh districts. Elaborating further Rautela said that 360 engineers of different work executing agencies of State Government have been given training on incorporating earthquake safety measures in the construction of buildings and other structures.
He informed that in the rural and other far flung areas of the state people rely on the masons and not take services of engineers for constructing houses.
Keeping this fact in mind 1514 masons have so far been given week long training on earthquake resistant construction techniques in tehsils and blocks of remote and sensitive areas of the state.
Rautela said hat 80 masons have been trained in retrofitting of existing structures and school buildings of eight schools in Dehradun in Tehri and Rudraprayag districts have been retrofitted to make them earthquake resistant.
He said that for effective utilisation of available resources and pre disaster planning use of Geographical Information System (GIS) and satellite imagery is being used extensively.
Rautela claimed that most of the infrastructural facilities of the state have been mapped using satellite imagery and GIS.
Earthquake warning systems developed by the IIT Roorkee have been placed in Uttarkashi and Joshimath and now this system is being expanded in Kumaon region. These systems warn a few seconds before an earthquake. Plans are afoot to set up such warning systems in Dehradun and Haldwani cities.