Odisha is a disaster-prone State like other coastal States of India. In fact, the whole State is vulnerable to natural as well as man-made disasters.
The Disaster Management Act, 2005 extends to the whole of India. The Act provides for effective management of disasters. But in actual sense, Odisha has got little benefit of the law as far as its disasters are concerned. There is also provision for forming rules by the State under the Act to protect regional interest, but no rules have been formed for management of disasters.
The Prime Minister of India is the Chairperson of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDHA) constituted under the provisions of the Act. Similarly, the Chief Minister is the Chairperson of the State Disaster Management Authority. The Chief Minister has to appoint eight members to form a State Executive Committee for drawing up State Disaster Management plans and for implementation of guidelines of the national plan.
In each district, there should be District Disaster Management Authority under the provision of the Act, where the Collector is the Chairperson. The elected representative of the area is a member of the District Disaster Management Authority.
The Disaster Management Act 2005 provides for civil and criminal liabilities for those, who violate the law. But in spite of colossal irregularities in the disaster management, the offenders are not brought to book.
Disaster means an event that causes great distress or destructions. Recently, Odisha faced consecutive disasters like the sea-engulfing the Puri coast, fire in SUM Hospital and Japan Encephalitis outbreak in Malkangiri district killing 100 infants.
The Supreme Court of India has rightly said on July 22, 2013 that the implementation of the National Disaster Act 2005 had been slow. In case of Odisha, the Act has lost its importance virtually.
If we consider the case of coastal part of the State, the common and general disaster we face in this region is cyclone. Due to formation low-pressure belts over the ocean-surface, such disastrous situation occurs frequently. But the coastal ecological systems act as preventive and protective measures against such oceanic based disasters. But we deliberately devastate the same on one or more excuses. Another type of sea-based threat we face is erosion. Formation of back water in the coastal plains due to loss of ecological systems in the very sensitive ecological region like river mouths is also another cause of concern.
The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Rules are formed by the Government of India under the provisions of the Environment Protection Act 1986 for protection of sea-coasts, but the State Government pays least regard to these provisions. Now thousands of hectares of mangrove forests right from Gopalpur to Digha along the sea coast of Bay of Bengal are occupied by prawn cultivators.
The 480km coastal ecology is under threat due to the prawn cultivation. The physical environment is completely wasted, which cannot be recovered soon through natural process, or even by artificial means. The resilience or the productivity of the coastal land under prawn cultivation is lost, due application of chemical feeds to the prawns grown in artificial ponds and chemical inputs for eradication of viruses and predators of prawns. The whole climate system is jeopardized because of prawn cultivations and other commercial activities.
If we consider the case recent of fire accident in the SUM Hospital, it is observed the State administration does not follow the instructions laid down in the Disaster Management Act 2005 for prevention and protection of fire accident. The Government hospitals are not fully secured from fire accident. All the departments of the State Government should prepare individual plan as prescribed by the Disaster Management Authorities to prevent fire accident and to protect the properties and lives.
Every department of the Government has the responsibility to associate for prevention, protection and curative actions for mitigation of any kind of disaster, but such things are not done in Odisha. There must be timely and effective response to all kind of disasters.
The death of 100 children in Malkangiri district has invited sharp criticism from all quarters on failure of the Government to tackle the situation. lack of education and consciousness of health, hygiene, food habits, habitat management and economic conditions of the people are responsible for spread of the disease.
The State Government should lay down policies, plans and guidelines for disaster management to ensure timely and effectively response to the disasters. The National Disaster Management Authority runs various programmes like cyclone management project, school safety project, decision support system, among others. Similarly the State Government should prepare its own projects. Imparting proper education and training to the students for adequate knowledge on disaster management is essential.
Forest fire should be taken as most serious. Vast quantity of carbon and particulate materials discharged into atmosphere by forest fire pollute the atmosphere and cause various problems in the respiratory systems and eye sights of people. Animals and plants also suffer due to the pollution. lots of forest flora and fauna have vanished due to repeated annual forest fires.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)