Disaster Management

BACKGROUND:

Tripura is vulnerable to various natural and human induced hazards. The State is prone to Earthquakes as it is situated in seismic zone-V. Besides, the state is prone to the hazards like floods/ flash floods, epidemics, fires, cyclones, hailstorms, lightening, road accidents, etc.

During 2011 & 2012, the state witnessed four tremors measuring above 4 on the Richter Scale where the epicenters were in the State. The last tremor was 4.2 on the Richter Scale at 11:31:44 hrs on 25thNovember, 2012 located in West Tripura District.

The state has witnessed five cyclones during last two years where the damages to the properties were very high. During the current year two tornadoes affected to Bishalgarh and Boxanagar areas and such kind of incidents repeated after eight years. It affected heavily to the houses, crops, livelihoods and injured to many people within minutes. The tornado hit Bishalgarh on last 1st May, 2012 damaged about 1000 houses and injured 45 persons within 10 minutes in that particular patch.

Revenue Department is the Nodal Department for Disaster Management in the State. The Department has the Directorate of Relief, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management which has been renamed by the Government giving special emphasis to Disaster Management subject along with the existing business of the Directorate. The State has constituted Tripura Disaster Management Authority as per the Disaster Management Act-2005 and steps are being taken to make functional of the Authority with dedicated manpower support.

The State has a detailed website on Disaster Management which may be viewed at www.tdma.nic.in and www.tdma.in .

Disaster Management activities undertaken in Tripura

  1. Institutional Framework:

 

  1. Tripura Disaster Management Authority (TDMA) chaired by the Hon’ble Chief Minister is the apex body in the State.
  2. State Executive Committee (SEC) chaired by the Chief Secretary is the implementing body of Disaster Management Activities in the State.
  3. District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) is the implementing body in the District. DDMA meetings are held on half yearly basis. Disaster Management Committees constituted at sub-division, block and GP/Village levels.  
  4. The State Crisis Management Group (SCMG) and District Crisis Management Groups (DCMGs) have been constituted for handling man-made disasters and linked up with the SEC and DDMAs respectively. 
  5. For maintaining uniform command during disaster situation, incident commanders have been identified at State, District and Sub-division level (Chief Secretary-State level; DM & Collector-District level and Sub Divisional Magistrate at Sub-division level).
  6. Disaster Management Plan at District, Sub-division, Block, Panchayats/ Villages have been prepared and updated annually.
  7. Disaster Management Plans also prepared for line departments, school levels and for the New Capital Complex Secretariat building.
  8. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been prepared for functioning of Control Rooms, Handling Equipments, Conducting Mock Drills, for Search & Rescue Operations.

 

2. Operation of Control Room/ Emergency Operation Centres (EOC):

  1. The state has 24x7 State and District Control Rooms (EOCs) functioning round the clock in the Secretariat and DM & Collectors Offices respectively.
  2. State EOC receives daily weather information / warnings from IMD and CWC and shares to the District EOCs.  Daily situation report is being issued at 5PM.
  3. Toll Free telephones are working in State EOC (1070) and District EOCs (1077).
  4. Doppler Rader at IMD-Agartala station is being linked with State EOC for sharing now casting (warning of severe thunder storm, cyclones before one hour of the incident).
  5. New Mass SMS system is operational. 3500 contact numbers of key officials in the state have been incorporated in the system.
  6. There are two Strong motion accelerographs installed in Agartala (AD Nagar & 79 Tilla) by NEIST-Jorhat and GSI-Agartala.  

 

3. Disaster Management Teams and Equipments:

  1. A 20 member Disaster Management Team (DMT) has been constituted at State, District, Sub-division and Block levels.
  2. 36 sets of equipments consisting 38 items have been positioned at all 23 sub-divisions, 12 TSR Bns and Central Training Institute (CTI)-Gokulnagar, Agartala. 
  3. 144 officials from the 15 sub-divisions and 6 TSR Bns have been trained on handling equipments at CTI.
  4. Fire Service and Health Departments are procuring critical equipments for emergency response by using fund from 13Finance Commission allocation for Capacity Building.
  5. 40 helipads have been constructed at sub-division and block headquarters for emergency rescue, evacuation and emergency relief purposes in case of disaster.  Total 56 nos. of helipads have been identified for using disaster management purposes.

 

4. Trained Manpower for Disaster Response:

  1. So far 1733 nos. of uniformed personnel from TSR, State Police, Fire Service and Civil Defence have been trained at CTI-Gokulnagar on Medical First Aid and Search and Rescue. These trained people are posted at TSR Bns and department offices at state, district and sub-division Hqs who can be mobilized immediately to any disaster site in the state. Now these personnel have undergone refresher training.
  2. @20 personnel have been identified as Core Team for Disaster Management at District, Sub-division and Block Hq levels for carrying out immediate disaster management activities. 
  3. Besides the above, @20 volunteers have been identified at the GP/Village levels for carrying out Rescue and First Aid activities during disaster times. Out of these,2500+ volunteers have been trained at Block and Panchayat levels rest of the volunteers are being trained up by the Block and Sub-division administration in phase manner.

 

5. Trainings organized:

  1. CTI is being further strengthened as State of Art training centre for Disaster Management with the help of National Disaster Management Authority by stationing one NDRF Team with required equipment support. 
  2. SIPARD is imparting general Disaster Management trainings to the Govt. Officials, PRIs, SHGs, NGOs etc. So far 3566 officials from various departments and PRIs in the state since 2009 till end of 2014.
  3. Civil Engineering Department of NIT-Agartala is the nodal training centre for Engineers training. So far, 221 Engineers from PWD, RD, Power, UD, Education deptts have been trained on Earthquake Engineering. More training programmes are being planned.
  4. PWD in collaboration with Institution of Engineers-Tripura is organising Masons and Helpers training at District, Sub-division, Nagar Panchayat and Block Hqs. So far2000+ masons and helpers have been trained.
  5. 1134 School and College teachers have been trained on School Safety at State and District levels.
  6. State and District nodal officers, line department nodal officers and key officials of disaster management in State, District, Sub-division and Block levels officials have been trained.
  7. So far 134 doctors and 307 paramedical staffs of different hospitals in the state have been trained on Emergency Health Management and Hospital Preparedness.
  8. PRIs trained (492 nos during 2014-15, 1179 nos. during 2012-13 and 746 nos. during 2011-12)
  9. 137 Journalists from print and electronic media have been trained on role of media on Disaster Management at State and District level training programmes.  

 

6. Mock Drills:

  1. State, District, Sub-divisional and GP/Village level mock drills conducted on annual basis.
  2. School level mock drills are being conducted on every third Saturday. If the third Saturday is a holiday, the same are being conducted on fourth Saturday.
  3. At a time more than 1000 Earthquake Safety Mock Drills have been conducted in the State on 13th October, 2014 on observance of International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR). Similar programmes are being organized on IDDR since 2010.
  4. As a part of Mega Exercise of North Eastern States, at a time mock drills conducted at 10 places in Dhalai and West Tripura Districts through NDMA-Govt. of India under Capacity Development Programme.
  5. Involving 900 NSS Programme Officers and NSS Volunteers, a Mega Awareness Campaign and Mock Drill have been organized at Agartala through NSS Festival of Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs.
  6. A mega mock drill has been organized at 10 places in West Tripura and Dhalai district simulating 1897 Shillong Earthquake on 13th March, 2014.
  7. Mega School Sensitisation Programme has been organized at Agartala by involving 1400 school children and similar programmes are being organized for Dharmanagar, Udaipur and Belonia.

 

7. Development of Awareness and Training Materials:

  1. Three types of posters, three types of handouts on Disaster Safety Tips (Earthquakes, Floods and Cyclones) were printed and distributed upto the panchayat levels.
  2. Five types of booklets have been distributed on Disaster Management for the officials, PRIs and volunteers upto the panchayat levels.
  3. Four types of school safety booklets have been printed and distributed all DMs and SDMs for using in School level training and awareness programmes.
  4. 18 nos. of disaster management documentaries/ films/ jingles have been dubbed into Bengali and distributed to all districts and line departments for conducting awareness programmes at their levels.

 

8. GOI-UNDP Project on “Enhancing Institutional and Community Resilience to Disasters and Climate Change (2013-2017)”:

After successful implementation of GOI-UNDP DRM Programme (2003-2009) and GOI-UNDP DRR Programme (2009-2012) in the State, the new GOI-UNDP project on “Enhancing Institutional and Community Resilience to Disasters and Climate Change (2013-2017)” is being implemented in 10 states including Tripura. One of the key components of the project is mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) in development planning.

 

9. National School Safety Programme (NSSP):

  1. The NSSP is being implemented in the state in identified 400 schools of two erstwhile districts i.e. old West Tripura and old North Tripura districts. The fund received under central sponsored scheme for taking up awareness generation, conducting school level mock drills, training of students and teachers and structural and non-structural mitigation activities on school safety in the identified schools. 

 

10. North East Mega Exercise : Simulation of 1897 Great Shillong Earthquake :

  1. By involving all NE States, NDMA has proposed to conduct a Mega Exercise by involving two districts in the State. In this regard two Capacity Development Programme involving Incident Response System (IRS), Table Top Exercise (TTE) and Mock Drill, training of Engineers have been conducted. A media plan is being implemented for creating mass awareness involving all media sectors. Further, school level awareness among students, teacher’s community and capacity building doctors and paramedics on Hospital Safety and Mass Casualty Management would be conducted.  

 

11. Other major activities on Disaster Management:

  1. Four buildings (i.e. Ujjayanta Palace, Umakanta Academy, Town Hall and part of IGM Hospital) have been taken up for retrofitting and more buildings are proposed for retrofitting in 14FC.
  2. The State has constructed 44 helipads in all District, Sub-division and Block Hqs for carrying out emergency responses and those helipads are being used for other purposes during normal time.
  3. Microzonation of Agartala City has been started by PWD with the support from NEIST-Jorhat. The report will help the state for preparing Master Plan of the city, revision of building byelaw, consideration of planned development, taking up earthquake preparedness measures etc.
  4. A dynamic daily situation report portal is functioning at State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC)
  5. Government has issued a notification to conduct mock drill in each school on every 3rd Saturday of the month.
  6. An interactive website on Disaster Management has been developed at www.tdma.nic.in which will be easy to access disaster management information for general public.
  7. Special initiative taken in Unakoti District by integrating disaster preparedness, first aid, health checkup actions through NRHM and NSSP. Other districts are picking up the good practice.

 

12. Disaster Management Projects already implemented in the State:

  • 2003-2009 – GOI-UNDP DRM Programme in which lots of Awareness generated in the state, for the first time the Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) programme taken up and every GP/Village level DM Plan prepared, Contingency planning converted into Disaster Management Plan, lots of Training & Capacity Building Prorammes taken up, State and District Control Rooms converted to Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs).
  • 2009-2012- GOI-UNDP DRR & URR Programme : During this programme there was a scope for further strengthening DRMP to take up sector specific disaster preparedness activities. Gave more emphasis to take up activities as per the DM-Act-2005 through Institutional Strengthening, taken up HRVA studies, quality improvement of DM Plans, Spl Trg & CB programmes taken up, Urban Risk Reduction (URR) activities taken up in Agartala, Kailashahar and Dharmanagar towns and initiatives on Knowledge Management also taken up by creating interactive websites, regular awareness through involving media, special initiative for student and teachers community on disaster management)