The Forest Research Institute director Dr PP Bhojvaid has stressed on the need for establishing a National Disaster Management Institute in Uttarakhand in view of the recent disaster experienced here.
He said this after inaugurating a training programme for Forest Department officials on their role in disaster management was jointly organised by the National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi, and FRI at the institute on Monday. The training programme will continue till July 19 at the institute to train department personnel in the role of forestry sector in disaster management.
The basic purpose of the training is to make the officials of forest department aware of the extent of damage caused by disaster in India, the reasons for occurrence of disasters, the steps that can be taken to prevent or minimise the losses due to disaster by use of various GIS tools and by developing a strong network between other departments of the Government and Joint Forest Management committees so that massive disasters could be controlled.
Participants will be enlightened on these issues through lectures by faculty members from institutions like Forest Survey of India, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee and Wildlife Institute of India and other institutes from across India.
The training programme is being organised by FRI Silviculture division head AS Rawat, scientist Dr lalit Narayan and research officer VK Dhawan.