ReliefWeb

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Over the last two decades, India has developed two complementary lines of effort in disaster management (DM). The first one significantly reorganized and improved its domestic capability. The second saw India grow as an emerging donor that increasingly provides disaster relief to other countries, particularly neighbors in its region.

India is one of the world’s most disasterprone countries, as it is exposed to many natural hazards including floods, cyclones, droughts, and earthquakes. India started reorganizing its domestic DM system after a succession of major disasters, including the 1999 Super Cyclone Odisha (formerly known as Orissa), 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The aftermath of these devastating disasters led India to enact the DM Act in 2005, adopt the National Policy on DM in 2009, and develop the National DM Plan in 2016.

Throughout this process, India consciously developed DM as a holistic approach, not just reacting after a disaster but also integrating disaster preparedness, mitigation, and disaster risk reduction (DRR) into plans and policies.
India has increasingly mitigated and responded to all types of disasters, including with the establishment of its National Disaster Reaction Force (NDRF), the world’s largest rapid reaction force dedicated to disaster response.
India is also an emerging donor that has provided a substantial amount of foreign disaster relief, as well as foreign development assistance, to other countries. India’s foreign humanitarian assistance has increasingly included its military assets, primarily deploying naval ships or aircraft to deliver relief. In line with its diplomatic policy of “Neighborhood First,” many of the recipient countries have been in the region of South and Southeast Asia. In the last two decades, India has given foreign humanitarian assistance bilaterally to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and others.

As part of its neighborhood development efforts, India also contributes to regional disaster preparedness and capacity building efforts.
Within the context of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), India has hosted DM Exercises that allow NDRF to demonstrate for counterparts from partner states the techniques developed to respond to various disasters. Other NDRF and Indian Armed Forces exercises have brought India’s first responders into contact with those from states in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

These efforts come as India, along with the rest of the world, is increasingly affected by climate change. Globally, disasters in the last two decades have predominantly been climate-related disasters, of which floods are the most frequently occurring type of disaster and storms are the second most deadly type of disaster (surpassed by earthquakes).3 India frequently experiences both floods and storms. The country has adopted the Sendai Framework for DRR, the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030), and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, all of which make clear the connections among DRR, climate change adaptation (CCA), and sustainable development. India participates in several multilateral organizations that address these and other issues that benefit from multinational coordination.

India approaches most of its international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief activities bilaterally. While it maintains membership in various regional organizations, it also works to develop and maintain bilateral relations with individual countries. The United States (U.S.) and India have deepened their relationship in the past several decades. India is a valued strategic partner for the U.S., and the two countries work together in ensuring a free and open Indo-Asia-Pacific region.