Overview

India is highly vulnerable to natural hazards, particularly earthquakes, floods, droughts, cyclones and landslides. Studies indicate that natural disaster losses equate up to 2% of India’s GDP and up to 12% of federal government revenues. 

Of the roughly 7,000 km length of India’s coastline, 5,700 km is exposed to severe cyclones. About 40% of India’s total population lives within 100 km of the coastline. Analysis for the period 1980-2000 indicates that, on average, 370 million people are exposed to cyclones in India annually. 

As per the latest seismic zoning map brought out by the Bureau of Indian Standards, over 65% of the country is prone to earthquakes of intensity MSK VII or more. Some of the country’s most populous cities are located in high risk seismic zones, including the capital of New Delhi. Some of the most intense earthquakes in the world have occurred in India, and six major earthquakes have struck different parts of the country over the past 15 years. 

In addition to this, large parts of India are prone to devastating flooding and significant portions to landslides and other natural hazards. As climate change and variability become more pronounced, hazard events are set to grow. The projected increase in damages caused by natural disasters reiterates the scale of vulnerability.

Given its exposure to adverse natural events, India has begun to develop its disaster risk management capabilities in recent years. India’s response to two of the biggest disasters of the current decade, the Gujarat earthquake in 2005 and the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 were efficient and effective. Throughout this period, India has made great strides in shifting from reactive emergency response activities to being proactive and implementing disaster preparedness and risk reduction initiatives. India enacted the Disaster Management Act in 2005 and established the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs). NDMA has proactively formulated guidelines and procedures for dealing with specific calamities and is mandated to frame policies, plans, and guidelines for disaster risk management. In April 2007, the NDMA formulated “National Disaster Management Guidelines for Management of Earthquakes” in consultation with various stakeholders of central ministries and departments, scientific and technical institutions, academics, technocrats, architects and humanitarian organisations. In addition, the Risk Management Framework developed in India has served as a blue print and best practice model for other countries.

The World Bank’s Role

The World Bank fully supports India’s major policy shift from reactive disaster response to proactive risk management. It has worked with the Government of India and various state and local agencies to implement demand driven programs aimed at reducing vulnerability and strengthening institutional capacity. The Bank offers significant experience in translating national risk mitigation strategies into effective policies and sustainable investment programs. 

National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP)

The Government of India’s (GoI) National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP), supported by the World Bank, is a flagship program underway in cyclone prone coastal States and Union Territories. It primarily focuses on ex-ante risk mitigation interventions that strengthen a community’s resilience to cyclone risk. The NCRMP is being implemented by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) with support from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). 

Bihar Kosi Flood Recovery Project (BKFRP)

The Government of Bihar’s (GoB) Bihar Kosi Flood Recovery Project (BKFRP), being implemented with assistance from the World Bank, supports flood recovery and risk reduction efforts in areas affected by the Kosi River flood of 2008. The project is making investments in i) rebuilding damaged houses by applying the owner driven reconstruction methodology, ii) the construction of roads and bridges infrastructure, iii) strengthening the flood management capacity in the Kosi basin, iv) enhancing livelihood opportunities of affected households, and v) improving the emergency response capacity for future disasters. The GoB has created the Bihar Aapada Punarwas Evam Punarnirman Society (BAPEPS) for implementing the project. BKFRP has $220 million IDA credit that became effective on March 08, 2011 and the second phase of the project is currently under development.

CAPRA in India

A concerted effort on behalf of the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is being made to develop a South Asia based Probablistic Risk Assessment  platform similar to CAPRA. In India, the World Bank, in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), organized a training workshop on probabilistic risk assessment in New Delhi in December 2011 to introduce government officials and the NDMA to CAPRA and demonstrate its use in risk modelling and hazard and vulnerability assessments. 

A second CAPRA workshop was organized in March 2012 with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Ministry of Earth Sciences.  The IMD is the nodal agency that is mandated to predict and monitor severe weather phenomena such as tropical cyclones, floods, dust storms, heavy rains and snow, cold and heat waves, and earthquakes. It also serves as the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre on Tropical Cyclones and has the responsibility of issuing Tropical Weather Outlooks and Tropical Cyclone Advisories for the benefit of the countries bordering the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. These countries include Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. 

A third CAPRA training workshop is planned with the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), which hosts the Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS).