The primary responsibility for disaster management rests with the State Governments concerned. The Central Government supplements the efforts of the State Governments and provides requisite logistics and financial support.  There are well established institutional mechanisms at the National, State &  District  levels  in  the  country for taking appropriate preparedness, mitigation and prompt response measures for effective management of natural disasters.

The Central Government has taken several initiatives to ensure effective mitigation measures in the country to reduce risks during disasters by strengthening the disaster risk reduction system in India.  In this direction, important initiatives taken and important projects approved by Central Government are as under: -

1. The National Landslide Risk Mitigation project with a total financial outlay of Rs. 1000 crore for its implementation in fifteen (15) States, with Central Share from NDMF of Rs. 900 Crore. These 15 States are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. So far, an amount of Rs. 4.54 crore is released to the State of Uttarakhand.

 

2. Prior to this, in 2019, Government had approved Landslide Risk Mitigation Scheme (LRMS) for four (04) States viz. Sikkim, Mizoram, Nagaland and Uttarakhand with central assistance Rs. 43.91 Crore. The major outcomes of the scheme include landslide mitigation, real time monitoring, awareness programmes and capacity building & training.
3. Geological Survey of India (GSI) has established the National Landslide Forecasting Centre (NLFC) at Kolkata to cater to the real-time integration of diverse input data from multiple sources like Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), National Remote sensing Centre (NRSC) for forecasting and dissemination of the landslide early warning bulletins through dedicated means including Bhusanket web portal and Bhooskhalan mobile app, etc.

 

4. To reduce the risk of landslides, GSI developed a prototype regional Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) for India in collaboration with the British Geological Survey (BGS). The evaluation and testing of the model in three districts in India viz. Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal and Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu has been initiated.

 

5. GSI has been providing experimental landslide forecast bulletins in 18 districts in six other states, in collaboration with various stakeholders like Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) and all concerned State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs). These bulletins have forecast information up to the taluk / sub-divisional level.
6. Urban Flood Risk Mitigation Projects in seven (07) cities viz. Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune at a total financial outlay of Rs. 3075.65 crore.  Central Share from NDMF is Rs 2482.62 Crore. So far, an amount of Rs. 709.54 Crore is released to these seven cities.

 

7. National GLOF Risk Management Programme with a total financial outlay of Rs. 150 crore for its implementation in four (04) States viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. Central Share from NDMF is Rs. 135 Crore and so far, an amount of Rs. 27.73 Crore is released.

 

8. Catalytic assistance for twelve (12) drought prone States at a total financial outlay of Rs. 2022.16 crore, out of which, Central share from NDMF is Rs. 1200 crore.  These 12 states are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

 

9. Mitigation Project on Lightning Safety at a total financial outlay of Rs. 186.78 crore for ten (10) States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Central Share from NDMF for Lightning Safety is Rs. 121.14 Crore.
10. Mitigation Project for Forest Fire Risk Management for its implementation in 144 high-priority districts in nineteen (19) States at a total financial outlay of Rs. 818.92 crore, under which central share from NDMF & NDRF is Rs. 690.63 Crore. The states identified for the scheme are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttarakhand.

 

11. For timely dissemination of early warning alerts to people, Central Government has commissioned Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) based Integrated Alert System (SACHET). CAP Platform integrates all alert generating agencies viz. India Meteorological Department (IMD), Central Water Commission (CWC), Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Defence Geo-informatics Research Establishment (DGRE), Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Forest Survey of India (FSI) with all State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs), which are enabled to issue geo-targeted alerts / warning in regional vernacular by SMS, Mobile App, Browser Alerts, RSS feed and also over GAGAN and NavIC Satellite terminals.

CAP platform has been used to disseminate alerts by State Governments / UT administration. This system has been successfully used in recent disasters. More than 6400 crore SMS alerts have been disseminated so far using CAP.

12. Central Government has also implemented Aapda Mitra scheme, under which 1,00,000 community volunteers have been trained in disaster response, covering 350 Districts (including training of 4700 volunteers from 13 Districts of Rajasthan), which are prone to landslide, cyclone, earthquake, and floods. 

 

13. Central Government has also launched “Yuva Aapda Mitra Scheme” (YAMS) in the year 2024-25 to train 2,37,326 volunteers from National Cadet Core (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS), Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) and Bharat Scouts & Guides (BS&G) (including 12650 volunteers from 13 Districts of Rajasthan) in disaster response covering 315 Districts in the country which are prone to landslide, cyclone, earthquake, and floods. 

Awareness Generation and Capacity Building component are one of the major components of such mitigation programmes. Under National Landslide Risk Mitigation Project, there is a sub-component titled “Sensitization Programmes for communities and the Panchayat Raj Institution members including creation of a village task force in landslide-prone areas” for which Rs. 14 crore is allocated.  Under Mitigation Scheme for Forest Fire Risk Management, Rs. 22 crore is allocated for equipping village panchayats with basic equipment and fire-fighting skills in 144 identified districts of 19 States.  Under Mitigation Project on Lightning Safety, there is a sub-component for Master Training Programme for Gram Panchayat, members of Task force of Gram Panchayat and village for which Rs. 1.5 crore is allocated. Similarly, capacity building at local level is one of the components of Catalytic assistance for twelve (12) drought prone States programme.  For the State of Rajasthan, an amount of Rs. 2.00 crore is allocated for farmers’ training and awareness on drought proofing of the agriculture sectors.

This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Shri Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

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RK/VV/HS/PS/PR

(Release ID: 2146783)