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영어

India has been vulnerable to disasters from the impacts of floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides due to its size and human population exceeding one billion. During the UN International decade (1990‐2000) for Natural Disaster Reduction, nearly 25 % of deaths due to these disasters recorded in Asia occurred in India. Formally the Disaster Management in India was looked after by the Ministry of Agriculture with main focus on post disaster and rehabilitation. With the Super Cyclone over the east side in 1999 and a severe earthquake on the west side in 2001, there was a radical change in the orientation of the Disaster Management program in India. In 2002 Disaster Management was shifted to the Ministry of Home affairs with main focus as mitigation, prevention and preparedness. It was realized that development cannot be sustainable unless disaster mitigation is built into the development process and investments in mitigation are much more cost effective than expenditure on relief and rehabilitation. With this, a new National Disaster Management Framework was set up under the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2002. This presentation will give a broad overview of this framework, detail early warning systems devised for cyclone forecasting, measures adopted for flood mitigation, programs launched to tackle drought situations, Disaster Risk Management program, Human Resource Development critical for disaster mitigation strategy and India Disaster Resource Network. All these initiatives will help in building a safer and secure India.